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TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


36 ? Sara Marc IBassett 

The Invention Series 

Paul and the Printing Press 
Steve and the Steam Engine 
Ted and the Telephone 






" Would you like to go to college if you could?” 
persisted the elder man. Frontispiece. 

See page 178. 


Cf)e 31 nbention g>zxit& 


TED AND THE 
TELEPHONE 


BY 

SARA WARE BASSETT 

l\ 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

WILLIAM F. STECHER / 



BOSTON 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
1922 

c/w*. 




Copyright, 1922 , 

By Little, Brown, and Company. 
All rights reserved 
Published April, 1922 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

APR 29 1922 0 

©CI.A661469 




TO THE MEMORY OF 

EDWIN T. HOLMES 

WHO PLAYED A PART IN THE WON- 
DERFUL TELEPHONE STORY, THIS 
BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 

S. W. B. 










It gives me much pleasure to acknowledge the 
generosity of Mr. Thomas Augustus Watson, 
the associate of and co-worker with Mr. 
Alexander Graham Bell, who has placed at 
my disposal his “Birth and Babyhood of the 
Telephone.” 

Also the courtesy of Mrs. Edwin T. 
Holmes who has kindly allowed me to make 
use of her husband’s book: “A Wonderful 
Fifty Years.” 


The Author. 







CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I An Unheralded Champion ... 1 

II Ted Renews Old Times .... 11 

III Going to Housekeeping .... 21 

IV The First Night in the Shack . . 35 

V A Visitor 49 

VI More Guests 60 

VII Mr. Laurie 76 

VIII Diplomacy and Its Results ... 94 

IX The Story of the First Telephone . 106 

X What Came Afterward .... 122 

XI The Rest of the Story . . . .141 

XII Conspirators 152 

XIII What Ted Heard 163 

XIV The Fernalds Win Their Point . 173 

XV What Came of the Plot .... 189 

XVI Another Calamity 199 

. XVII Surprises 213 















> 

























ILLUSTRATIONS 


“Would you like to go to college if you 

could?” persisted the elder man . . Frontispiece 

“You can’t be spreadin’ wires an’ jars an’ 
things round my room!” protested Mr. 

Turner page 9 

Soon he came within sight of the shack which 

stood at the water’s edge “27 

He heard an answering shout and a second 
later saw Ted Turner dash through the 
pines 


“ 88 


\ 


TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


CHAPTER I 

AN UNHERALDED CHAMPION 

Ted Turner lived at Freeman’s Falls, a 
sleepy little town on the bank of a small New 
Hampshire river. There were cotton mills 
in the town ; in fact, had there not been prob- 
ably no town would have existed. The mills 
had not been attracted to the town; the town 
had arisen because of the mills. The river 
was responsible for the whole thing, for its 
swift current and foaming cascades had 
brought the mills, and the mills in turn had 
brought the village. 

Ted’s father was a shipping clerk in one of 
the factories and his two older sisters were 
employed there also. Some day Ted himself 
expected to enter the great brick buildings, 
as the boys of the town usually did, and work 
his way up. Perhaps in time he might become 
a superintendent or even one of the firm. 
Who could tell? Such miracles did happen. 
Not that Ted Turner preferred a life in the 
cotton mills to any other career. Not at 
all. Deep down in his soul he detested the 


2 


TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


humming, panting, noisy place with its clatter 
of wheels, its monotonous piecework, and its 
limited horizon. But what choice had he? 
The mills were there and the only alternative 
before him. It was the mills or nothing for 
people seldom came to live at Freeman’s Falls 
if they did not intend to enter the factories of 
Fernald and Company. It was Fernald and 
Company that had led his father to sell the 
tumble-down farm in Vermont and move with 
his family to New Hampshire. 

“ There is no money in farming,” announced 
he, after the death of Ted’s mother. “ Sup- 
pose we pull up stakes and go to some mill 
town where we can all find work.” 

And therefore, without consideration for 
personal preferences, they had looked up mill 
towns and eventually settled on Freeman’s 
Falls, not because they particularly liked its 
location but because labor was needed there. 
A very sad decision it was for Ted who had 
passionately loved the old farm on which he 
had been born, the half-blind gray horse, the 
few hens, and the lean Jersey cattle that his 
father asserted ate more than they were worth. 
To be cooped up in a manufacturing center 
after having had acres of open country to roam 
over was not an altogether joyous prospect. 
Would there be any chestnut, walnut, or apple 
trees at Freeman’s Falls, he wondered. 

Alas, the question was soon answered. 


AN UNHERALDED CHAMPION 3 

Within the village there were almost no trees 
at all except a few sickly elms and maples 
whose foliage was pale for want of sunshine 
and grimy with smoke. In fact, there was not 
much of anything in the town save the long 
dingy factories that bordered the river; the 
group of cheap and gaudy shops on the main 
street; and rows upon rows of wooden houses, 
all identical in design, walling in the highway. 
It was not a spot where green things flourished. 
There was not room for anything to grow and 
if there had been the soot from the tower- 
ing chimneys would soon have settled upon 
any venturesome leaf or flower and quickly 
shrivelled it beneath a cloak of cinders. Even 
the river was coated with a scum of oil and 
refuse that poured from the waste pipes of 
the factories into the stream and washed up 
along the shores which might otherwise have 
been fair and verdant. 

Of course, if one could get far enough away 
there was beauty in plenty for in the outlying 
country stretched vistas of splendid pines, 
fields lush with ferns and flowers, and the un- 
sullied span of the river, where in all its moun- 
tain-born purity it rushed gaily down toward 
the village. Here, well distant from the 
manufacturing atmosphere, were the homes 
of the Fernalds who owned the mills, the great 
estates of Mr. Lawrence Fernald and Mr. 
Clarence Fernald who every day rolled to 


4 


TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


their offices in giant limousines. Everybody 
in Freeman’s Falls knew them by sight, — the 
big boss, as he was called, and his married son ; 
and everybody thought how lucky they were 
to own the mills and take the money instead of 
doing the work. At least, that was what 
gossip said they did. 

Unquestionably it was much nicer to live at 
Aldercliffe, the stately colonial mansion of 
Mr. Lawrence Fernald; or at Pine Lea, the 
home of Mr. Clarence Fernald, where sweep- 
ing lawns, bright awnings, gardens, conserva- 
tories, and flashing fountains made a wonder- 
land of the place. Troupes of laughing guests 
seemed always to be going and coming at both 
houses and there were horses and motor-cars, 
tennis courts, a golf course, and canoes and 
launches moored at the edge of the river. 
Freeman’s Falls was a very stupid spot when 
contrasted with all this jollity. It must be 
far pleasanter, too, when winter came to hurry 
off to New York for the holidays or to Florida 
or California, as Mr. Clarence Fernald fre- 
quently did. 

With money enough to do whatever one 
pleased, how could a person help being 
happy? And yet there were those who de- 
clared that both Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Clar- 
ence Fernald would have bartered their for- 
tunes to have had the crippled heir to the 
Fernald millions strong like other boys. Oc- 


AN UNHERALDED CHAMPION 5 

casionally Ted had caught a glimpse of this 
Laurie Fernald, a fourteen-year-old lad with 
thin, colorless face and eyes that were haunt- 
ing with sadness. In the village he passed as 
“ the poor little chap ” or as “ poor Master 
Laurie ” and the employees always doffed 
their caps to him because they pitied him. 
Whether one liked Mr. Fernald or Mr. Clar- 
ence or did not, every one united in being 
sorry for Mr. Laurie. Perhaps the invalid 
realized this; at any rate, he never failed to 
return the greetings accorded him with a smile 
so gentle and sweet that it became a pleasure 
in the day of whomsoever received it. 

It was said at the factories that the reason 
the Fernalds went to New York and Florida 
and California was because of Mr. Laurie; 
that was the reason, too, why so many cele- 
brated doctors kept coming to Pine Lea, and 
why both Mr. Fernald and Mr. Clarence were 
often so sharp and unreasonable. In fact, 
almost everything the Fernalds did or did not 
do, said or did not say, could be traced 
back to Mr. Laurie. From the moment the 
boy was born — nay, long before — both Mr. 
Lawrence Fernald for whom he was named, 
and his father, Mr. Clarence Fernald, had 
planned how he should inherit the great mills 
and carry on the business they had founded. 
For years they had talked and talked of what 
should happen when Mr. Laurie grew up. 


6 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


And then had come the sudden and terrible 
illness, and after weeks of anxiety everybody 
realized that if Mr. Laurie lived he would be 
fortunate, and that he would never be able to 
carry on any business at all. 

In what hushed tones the townspeople 
talked of the tragedy and how they speculated 
on what the Fernalds would do now. And 
how surprised the superintendent of one of the 
mills (who, by the way, had six husky boys 
of his own) had been to have Mr. Lawrence 
Fernald bridle with rage when he said he was 
sorry for him. A proud old man was Mr. 
Fernald, senior. He did not fancy being 
pitied, as his employees soon found out. Pos- 
sibly Mr. Clarence Fernald did not like it 
any better but whether he did or not he at 
least had the courtesy not to show his feelings. 

Thus the years had passed and Mr. Laurie 
had grown from childhood to boyhood. He 
could now ride about in a motor-car if lifted 
into it; but he could still walk very little, al- 
though specialists had not given up hope that 
perhaps in time he might be able to do so. 
There was a rumor that he was strapped into 
a steel jacket which he was forced to wear con- 
tinually, and the mill hands commented on its 
probable discomfort and wondered how the 
boy could always keep so even-tempered. For 
it was unavoidable that the large force of ser- 
vants from Aldercliffe and Pine Lea should 


AN UNHERALDED CHAMPION 7 

neighbor back and forth with the townsfolk 
and in this way many a tale of Mr. Laurie’s 
rare disposition reached the village. And 
even had not these stories been rife, anybody 
could easily have guessed the patience and 
sweetness of Mr. Laurie’s nature from his 
smile. 

Among the employees of Fernald and Com- 
pany he was popularly known as the Little 
Master and between him and them there ex- 
isted a friendliness which neither his father 
nor his grandfather had ever been able to call 
out. The difference was that for Mr. Law- 
rence Fernald the men did only what they 
were paid to do; for Mr. Clarence they did 
fully what they were paid to do; and for Mr. 
Laurie they would gladly have done what they 
were paid to do and a great deal more. 

“ The poor lad ! ” they murmured one to an- 
other. “ The poor little chap! ” 

Of course it followed that no one envied 
Mr. Laurie his wealth. How could they? 
One might perhaps envy Mr. Fernald, senior, 
or Mr. Clarence; but never Mr. Laurie even 
though the Fernald fortune and all the houses 
and gardens, with their miles of acreage, as 
well as the vast cotton mills would one day be 
his. Even Ted Turner, poor as he was, and 
having only the prospect of the factories ahead 
of him, never thought of wishing to exchange 
his lot in life for that of Mr. Laurie. He 


8 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


would rather toil for Fernald and Company 
to his dying day than be this weak, dependent 
creature who was compelled to be carried 
about by those stronger than himself. 

Nevertheless, in spite of this, there were in- 
tervals when Ted did wish he might exchange 
houses with Mr. Laurie. Not that Ted Tur- 
ner coveted the big colonial mansion, or its 
fountains, its pergolas, its wide lawns; but he 
did love gardens, flowers, trees, and sky, and 
of these he had very little. He was, to be 
sure, fortunate in living on the outskirts of 
the village where he had more green and blue 
than did most of the mill workers. Still, it 
was not like Vermont and the unfenced miles 
of country to which he had been accustomed. 
A small tenement in Freeman’s Falls, even 
though it had steam heat and running water, 
was in his opinion a poor substitute for all 
that had been left behind. 

But Ted’s father liked the new home better, 
far better, and so did Ruth and Nancy, his 
sisters. Many a time the boy heard his father 
congratulating himself that he was clear of 
the farm and no longer had to get up in the 
cold of the early morning to feed and water the 
stock and do the milking. And Ruth and 
Nancy echoed these felicitations and rejoiced 
that now there was neither butter to churn nor 
hens to care for. 

Even Ted was forced to confess that Free- 



" You can’t be spreadin’ wires an’ jars an’ things round 
my room ! ” protested Mr. Turner. Page 9. 




AN UNHERALDED CHAMPION 


9 


man’s Falls had its advantages. Certainly the 
school was better, and as his father had resolved 
to keep him in it at least a part of the high- 
school term, Ted felt himself to be a lucky boy. 
He liked to study. He did not like all studies, 
of course. For example, he detested Latin, 
French, and history; but he revelled in shop- 
work, mathematics, and the sciences. There 
was nothing more to his taste than putting 
things together, especially electrical things; 
and already he had tried at home several crude 
experiments with improvised telegraphs, tele- 
phones, and wireless contrivances. Doubtless 
he would have had many more such playthings 
had not materials cost so much, money been so 
scarce, and Ruth and Nancy so timid. They 
did not like mysterious sparks and buzzings in 
the pantry and about the kitchen and told him 
so in no uncertain terms. 

“ The next thing you know you ’ll be setting 
the house afire!” Ruth had asserted. “Be- 
sides, we ’ve no room for wires and truck 
around here. You ’ll have to take your clutter 
somewhere else.” 

And so Ted had obediently bundled his pre- 
cious possessions into the room where he slept 
with his father only to be as promptly ejected 
from that refuge also. 

“You can’t be spreadin’ wires an’ jars an’ 
things round my room! ” protested Mr. Tur- 
ner with annoyance. 


IO TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


It did not seem to occur to him that it was 
Ted’s room as well, — the only room the boy 
had. 

Altogether, his treasures found no welcome 
anywhere in the tiny apartment, and at length 
convinced of this, Ted took everything down 
and stowed it away in a box beneath the bed, 
henceforth confining his scientific adventures 
to the school laboratories where they might 
possibly have remained forever but for Mr. 
Wharton, the manager of the farms at Alder- 
cliffe and Pine Lea. 


CHAPTER II 


TED RENEWS OLD TIMES 

Mr. Wharton was about the last person on 
earth one would have connected with boxes 
of strings and wires hidden away beneath 
beds. He was a graduate of a Massachusetts 
agricultural college; a keen-eyed, quick, im- 
patient creature toward whom people in gen- 
eral stood somewhat in awe. He had the 
reputation of being a top-notch farmer and 
those who knew him declared with zest that 
there was nothing he did not know about sbils, 
fertilizers, and crops. There was no non- 
sense when Mr. Wharton appeared on the 
scene. The men who worked for him soon 
found that out. You did n’t lean on your hoe, 
light your pipe, and hazard the guess that 
there would be rain to-morrow; you just 
hoed as hard as you could and did not stop 
to guess anything. 

Now it happened that it was haying time 
both at Aldercliffe and Pine Lea and the ru- 
mor got abroad that the crop was an unusu- 
ally heavy one; that Mr. Wharton was short 
of help and ready to hire at a good wage ex- 
tra men from the adjoining village. Mr. 


12 


TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


Turner brought the tidings home from the 
mill one June night when he returned from 
work. 

“ Why do n’t you try for a job up at Alder- 
cliffe, my lad?” concluded he, after stating 
the case. “ Ever since you were knee-high to 
a grasshopper you had a knack for pitching 
hay. Besides, you’d make a fine bit of money 
and the work would be no heavier than han- 
dling freight down at the mills. You ’ve got 
to work somewhere through your summer va- 
cation.” 

He made the latter statement as a matter of 
course for a matter of course it had long since 
become. Ted always worked when he was 
not studying. Vacations, holidays, Saturdays, 
he was always busy earning money for if he 
had not been, there would have been no 
chance of his going to school the rest of the 
time. Sometimes he did errands for one of 
the dry-goods stores; sometimes, if there were 
a vacancy, he helped in Fernald and Com- 
pany’s shipping rooms; sometimes he worked 
at the town market or rode about on the gro- 
cer’s wagon, delivering orders. By one means 
or another he had usually contrived, since 
he was quite a small boy, to pick up odd sums 
that went toward his clothes and “ keep.” As 
he grew older, these sums had increased until 
now they had become a recognized part of 
the family income. For it was understood 


TED RENEWS OLD TIMES 


13 


that Ted would turn in toward the household 
expenses all that he earned. His father had 
never believed in a boy having money to 
spend and even if he had every cent which 
the Turners could scrape together was needed 
at home. Ted knew well how much sugar 
and butter cost and therefore without demur 
he cheerfully placed in the hands of his sister 
Ruth, who ran the house, every farthing that 
was given him. 

From childhood this sense of responsibility 
had always been in his background. He had 
known what it was to go hungry that he might 
have shoes and go without shoes that he might 
have underwear. Money had been very 
scarce on the Vermont farm, and although 
there was now more of it than there ever had 
been in the past, nevertheless it was not plen- 
tiful. Therefore, as vacation was approach- 
ing and he must get a job anyway, he decided 
to present himself before Mr. Wharton and 
ask for a chance to help in harvesting the hay 
crops at Aldercliffe and Pine Lea. 

“ You are younger than the men I am hir- 
ing,” Mr. Wharton said, after he had scanned 
the lad critically. “ How old are you? ” 

“ Fourteen.” 

“ I thought as much. What I want is 
men.” 

“ But I have farmed all my life,” protested 
Ted with spirit. 


14 


TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


“ Indeed! ” the manager, exclaimed not un- 
kindly. “ Where? ” 

“ In Vermont.” 

“You don’t say so! I was born in the 
Green Mountains,” was the quick retort. 
“ Where did you live? ” 

“ Newfane.” 

Instantly the man’s face lighted. 

“ I know that place well. And you came 
from Newfane here? How did you happen 
to do that? ” 

“ My father could not make the farm pay 
and we needed money.” 

“Humph! Were you sorry to give up 
farming? ” 

“ Yes, sir. I did n’t want to come to Free- 
man’s Falls. But,” added the boy brighten- 
ing, “ I like the school here.” 

The manager paused, studying the sharp, 
eager face, the spare figure, and the fine car- 
riage of the lad before him. 

“ Do you like haying? ” asked he presently. 

“Not particularly,” Ted owned with hon- 
esty. 

Mr. Wharton laughed. 

“ I see you are a human boy,” he said. 
“ If you do n’t like it, why are you so anx- 
ious to do it now? ” 

“ I ’ve got to earn some money or give up 
going to school in the fall.” 

“ Oh, so that ’s it! And what are you work- 


TED RENEWS OLD TIMES 


15 

ing at in school that is so alluring? ” demanded 
the man with a quizzical glance. 

“ Electricity.” 

“ Electricity! ” ( 

“ Wireless, telegraphs, telephones, and 
things like that,” put in Ted. 

For comment Mr. Wharton tipped back in 
his chair and once more let his eye wander 
over the boy’s face ; then he wheeled abruptly 
around to his desk, opened .a drawer, and took 
out a yellow card across which he scrawled 
a line with his fountain pen. 

“You may begin work to-morrow morn- 
ing,” he remarked curtly. “ If it is pleasant, 
Stevens will be cutting the further meadow 
with a gang of men. Come promptly at eight 
o’clock, prepared to stay all day, and bring 
this card with you.” 

He waved the bit of pasteboard to and fro 
in the air an instant to be certain that the ink 
on it was dry and afterward handed it to 
Ted. Instinctively the boy’s gaze dropped to 
the message written upon it and before he real- 
ized it he had read the brief words: 

“Ted Turner. He says he has farmed in 
Vermont. If he shows any evidence of it 
keep him. If not turn him off. Wharton.” 

The man in the chair watched him as he 
read. 

“Well?” said he. 

“ I beg your pardon, sir. I did not mean 


1 6 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


to read it,” Ted replied with a start. “ I ’m 
very much obliged to you for giving me the 
job.” 

“ I do n’t see that you ’ve got it yet.” 

“ But I shall have,” asserted the lad con- 
fidently. “ All I asked was a chance.” 

“ That ’s all the world gives any of us,” re- 
sponded the manager gruffly, as he drew forth 
a sheet of paper and began to write. “ No- 
body can develop our brains, train our 
muscles, or save our souls but ourselves.” 

With this terse observation he turned his 
back on the boy, and after loitering a moment 
to make sure that he had nothing more to say, 
the lad slipped away, triumphantly bearing 
with him the coveted morsel of yellow paste- 
board. That its import was noncommittal 
and even contained a tang of skepticism 
troubled him not a whit. The chief thing 
was that he had wrested from the manager an 
opportunity, no matter how grudgingly ac- 
corded, to show what he was worth. He 
could farm and he knew it and he had no 
doubt that he could demonstrate the fact to 
any boss he might encounter. 

Therefore with high courage he was 
promptly on hand the next morning and even 
before the time assigned he approached 
Stevens, the superintendent. 

“What do you want, youngster?” de- 
manded the man sharply. He was in a hurry 


TED RENEWS OLD TIMES 


17 

and it was obvious that something had nettled 
him and that he was in no humor to be delayed. 

“ I came to help with the haying.” 

“ We do n’t want any boys as young as you,” 
Stevens returned, moving away. 

“ I ’ve a card from Mr. Wharton.” 

“A card, eh? Why didn’t you say so 
in the first place? Shell it out.” 

Shyly Ted produced his magic fragment of 
paper which the overseer read with disap- 
proval in his glance. 

“ Well, since Wharton wants you tried out, 
you can pitch in with the crowd,” grumbled 
he. “ But I still think you ’re too young. 

I ’ve had boys your age before and never found 
them any earthly use. However, you wo n’t 
be here long if you ’re not — that ’s one thing. 
You ’ll find a pitchfork in the barn. Follow 
along behind the men who are mowing and 
spread the grass out.” 

“ I know.” 

“ Oh, you do, do you! Trust people your 
size for knowing everything.” 

To the final remark the lad vouchsafed no 
reply. Instead he moved away and soon re- 
turned, fork in hand. What a flood of old 
memories came surging back with the touch 
of the implement! Again he was in Vermont 
in the stretch of mowings that fronted the old 
white house where he was born. The scent 
of the hay in his nostrils stirred him like an 


1 8 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


elixir, and with a thrill of pleasure he set to 
work. He had not anticipated toiling out 
there in the hot sunshine at a task which he 
had always disliked; but to-day, by a strange 
miracle, it did not seem to be a task so much 
as a privilege. 

How familiar the scene was! As he ap- 
proached the group of older men it took him 
only a second to see where he was needed and 
he thrust his pitchfork into the swath at his 
feet with a swing of easy grace. 

“ Guess you ’ve done this job before,” called 
a man behind him after he had worked for an 
interval. 

“Yes, I have.” 

“ You show it,” was the brief observation. 

They moved on in silence up the field. 

“ Where ’d you learn to handle that fork, 
sonny? ” another voice shouted, as they neared 
the farther wall. 

“ In Vermont,” laughed Ted. 

“ I judged as much,” grunted the speaker. 
“ They do n’t train up farmers of your size in 
this part of the world.” 

Ted flushed with pleasure and for the first 
time he stopped work and mopped the per- 
spiration from his forehead. He was hot 
and thirsty but he found himself strangely ex- 
hilarated by the exercise and the sweet morn- 
ing air and sunshine. Again he took up his 
fork and tossed the newly cut grass up into 


TED RENEWS OLD TIMES 


i9 


the light, spreading it on the ground with a 
methodical sweep of his young arm. The 
sun had risen higher now and its dazzling 
brilliance poured all about him. Up and 
down the meadow he went and presently he 
was surprised to find himself alone near the 
point from which he had started. His fellow- 
laborers were no longer in sight. The field 
was very still and because it was, Ted began 
to whistle softly to himself. 

He was startled to hear a quiet laugh at his 
elbow. 

“ Do n’t you ever eat anything, kid? ” 

Mr. Wharton was standing beside him, a 
flicker of amusement in his gray eyes. 

“ I did n’t know it was noon,” gasped Ted. 

“ We ’ll have to tie an alarm clock on you,” 
chuckled the manager. “ The gang stopped 
work a quarter of an hour ago.” 

“ I did n’t notice they had.” 

The boy flushed. He felt very foolish to 
have been discovered working there all by 
himself in this ridiculous fashion. 

“ I wanted to finish this side of the field and 
I forgot about the time,” he stammered apolo- 
getically. 

“ Have you done it to your satisfaction? ” 

“ Yes, I ’m just through.” 

For the life of him Ted could not tell 
whether the manager was laughing at him or 
not. He kicked the turf sheepishly. 


20 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


“ Are n’t you tired?” inquired Mr. Whar- 
ton at length. 

“No — at least — well, I haven’t thought 
about it. Perhaps I am a little.” 

“And well you may be. You’ve put in a 
stiff morning’s work. You ’d better go and 
wash up now and eat your lunch. Take your 
full hour of rest. No matter if the others do 
get back here before you. Stevens says you 
are worth any two of them, anyway.” 

“ It ’s just that I ’m used to it,” was the 
modest reply. 

“ We ’ll let it go at that,” Mr. Wharton re- 
turned ambiguously. “ And one thing more 
before you go. You need n’t worry about 
staying on. We can use you one way or an- 
other all summer. There ’ll always be work 
for a boy who knows how to do a job well.” 


CHAPTER III 


GOING TO HOUSEKEEPING 

THUS it came about that Ted Turner began 
the long, golden days of his summer vacation 
at the great estates of the Fernalds, and soon 
he had made himself such an indispensable 
part of the farming staff that both Mr. Whar- 
ton and Mr. Stevens came to rely on him for 
many services outside of those usually turned 
over to the men. 

“ Just step over to the south lot at Pine Lea, 
Ted, and see if those fellows are thinning the 
beets properly,” Mr. Wharton would say. 
“ I gave them their orders but they may not 
have taken them in. You know how the thing 
should be done. Sing out to them if they are 
not doing the job right.” 

Or: 

“ Mr. Stevens and I shall be busy this morn- 
ing checking up the pay roll. Suppose you 
have an eye on the hilling up of the potatoes, 
Ted. Show the men how you want it done 
and start them at it. I ’ll be over later to see 
how it ’s going.” 

Frequently, instead of working, the boy was 
called in to give an opinion on some agricul- 


22 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

tural matter with which he had had experi- 
ence. 

“ We are finding white grubs in the corner 
of the Pine Lea garden. They are gnawing 
off the roots of the plants and making no end 
of trouble. What did you do to get rid of 
them when you were up in Vermont? ” 

“ Salt and wood ashes worked better than 
anything else,” Ted would reply modestly. 
“ It might not be any good here but we had 
luck with it at home.” 

“ We can try it, at least. You tell Mr. 
Stevens what the proportions are and how you 
applied it.” 

And because the advice was followed by a 
successful extermination of the plague, the 
lad’s prestige increased and he was summoned 
to future conclaves when troublesome condi- 
tions arose. 

Now and then there was a morning when 
Mr. Stevens would remark to Mr. Wharton: 

“ I ’ve got to go to the Falls to-day to see 
about some freight. Ted Turner will be 
round here, though, and I guess things will be 
all right. The men can ask him if they want 
anything.” 

And so 1 it went. 

First Ted filled one corner, then another. 
He did errands for Mr. Wharton, very special 
errands, that required thought and care, and 
which the manager would not have entrusted 


GOING TO HOUSEKEEPING 


23 


to every one. Sometimes he ventured valu- 
able suggestions which Mr. Stevens, who 
really had had far less farming experience 
than he, was only too grateful to follow. 

If the boy felt at all puffed up by the de- 
pendence placed upon him, he certainly failed 
to show it. On the contrary he did his part 
enthusiastically, faithfully, generously, and 
without a thought of praise or reward. Al- 
though he was young to direct others, when he 
did give orders to the men he was tactful and 
retiring enough to issue his commands in the 
form of wishes and immediately they were 
heeded without protest. He never shirked 
the hard work he asked others to perform but 
was always ready to roll up the sleeves of his 
blue jeans and pitch with vigor into any task, 
no matter how menial it was. Had he been 
arrogant and made an overbearing use of his 
authority, the men would quickly have rated 
him as a conceited little popinjay, the pet of 
the boss, and made his life miserable; but as 
he remained quite unspoiled by the preference 
shown him and exhibited toward every one 
he encountered a kindly sympathy and con- 
sideration, the workmen soon accepted him 
as a matter of course and even began to turn 
to him whenever a dilemma confronted them. 

Perhaps Ted was too genuinely interested 
in what he was doing to think much about 
himself or realize that the place he held was 


24 ted and the telephone 

an unusual one. At home he and his father 
had threshed out many a problem together 
and each given to it the best his brain had to 
offer, without thought of the difference in 
their ages. Sometimes Ted’s way proved the 
better, sometimes Mr. Turner’s. Whichever 
plan promised to bring the more successful 
results was followed without regard for the 
years of him who had sponsored it. They 
were working together and for the same goal 
and what did it matter which of them had pro- 
posed the scheme they finally followed? To 
get the work completed and lay low the obsta- 
cles in their path were the only issues of im- 
portance. 

So it was now. Things at Aldercliffe and 
Pine Lea must be done and done well, and only 
what furthered that end counted. Neverthe- 
less, Ted would not have been a human boy 
had he not been pleased when some idea of 
his was adopted and found to be of use; this 
triumph, however, was less because the pro- 
gramme followed was his own than because it 
put forward the enterprise in hand. There 
was a satisfaction in finding the key to a balk- 
ing problem and see it cease to be a problem. 
It was fun, for example, to think about the 
potatoes and then say to Mr. Wharton: 

“ Do you know, Mr. Wharton, I believe 
if we tried a different spray on that crop that 
is n’t doing well it might help matters.” 


GOING TO HOUSEKEEPING 


25 


And when the new concoction was tried and 
it did help matters, what a glow of happiness 
came with the success ! 

What wonder that as the days passed, the 
niche awarded the lad grew bigger and bigger! 

“ There is no way you could come up here 
and live, is there, Ted?” Mr. Wharton in- 
quired one day. “ I ’d give a good deal to have 
you here on the spot. Sometimes I want to 
talk with you outside working hours and I 
can’t for the life of me lay hands on you. It ’s 
the deuce of a way to Freeman’s Falls and you 
have no telephone. If you were here — ” 
He paused meditatively, then continued, 
“ There ’s a little shack down by the river 
which is n’t in use. You may remember see- 
ing it. It was started years ago as a boat- 
house for Mr. Laurie’s canoes and then — 
well, it was never finished. It came to me the 
other day that we might clean it up, get some 
furnishings, and let you have it. How would 
the notion strike you? ” 

Ted’s eyes sparkled. 

“ I ’d like it of all things, sir! ” returned he 
instantly. 

“ You would n’t be timid about sleeping off 
there by yourself? ” 

“ No, indeed!” 

“Well, well! I had no idea you would 
listen to such a plan, much less like it. Sup- 
pose you go down there to-day and overhaul 


2 6 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


the place. Find out what would be required 
to make you comfortable and we will see what 
we can do about it. I should want you fixed 
up so you would be all right, you know. 
While we could not afford to go into luxuries, 
there would be no need for you to put up with 
makeshifts.” 

“ But I am quite used to roughing it,” pro- 
tested Ted. . “ I ’ve often camped out.” 

“ Camping is all very well for a while but 
after a time it ceases to be a joke. No, if you 
move up here to accommodate us, you must 
have decent quarters. Both Mr. Fernald and 
Mr. Clarence would insist on that, I am cer- 
tain. So make sure that the cabin is tight and 
write down what you think it would be neces- 
sary for you to have. Then we ’ll see about 
getting the things for you.” 

“You are mighty good, sir.” 

“ Nonsense! It is for our own conveni- 
ence,” Mr. Wharton replied gruffly. 

“ Shall I — do you mean that I am to go 
over there after work to-night? ” 

“No. Go now. Cut along right away.” 

“ But I was to help Mr. Stevens with 
the — ” 

“ Stevens will have to get on without you. 
Tell him so from me. You can say I ’ve set 
you at another job.” 

With springing step Ted hurried away. 
He was not sorry to exchange the tedious task 



Soon he came within sight of the shack which stood at 
the water’s edge. Page 27. 

























































































































































































* 


GOING TO HOUSEKEEPING 


27 


of hoeing corn for the delightful one of furn- 
ishing a domicile for himself. What sport it 
would be to have at last a place which he could 
call his own! He could bring his books from 
home, his box of electrical things — all his 
treasures — and settle down in his kingdom 
like a young lord. He did not care at all if 
he had only a hammock to sleep in. The 
great satisfaction would be to be his own mas- 
ter and monarch of his own realm, no matter 
how tiny it was. Like lightning his imagi- 
nation sped from one dream to another. If 
only Mr. Wharton would let him run some 
wires from the barn to the shack, what elec- 
trical contrivances he could rig up! He 
could then light the room and heat it, too; he 
could even cook by electricity. 

Probably, however, Mr. Wharton would 
consider such a notion out of the question and 
much too ambitious. Even though the Fer- 
nalds had an electrical plant of their own, 
such a luxury was not to be thought of. A 
candle would do for lighting, of course. 

Busy with these thoughts and others like 
them he sped across the meadow and through 
the woods toward the river. He was not con- 
tent to walk the distance but like a child 
leaped and ran with an impatience not to be 
curbed. Soon he came within sight of the 
shack which stood at the water’s edge, mid- 
way between Aldercliffe and Pine Lea, and 


28 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


was sheltered from view by a grove of thick 
pines. Its bare, boarded walls had silvered 
from exposure to the weather until it was 
scarcely noticeable against the gray tree trunks. 
Nevertheless, its crude, rough sides, its staring 
windows, and its tarred roof looked cheerless 
and deserted enough. But for Ted Turner it 
possessed none of these forbidding qualities. 
Instead of being a hermitage it seemed a para- 
dise, a fairy kingdom, the castle of a knight’s 
tale ! 

Thrusting the key which Mr. Wharton had 
given him into the padlock, he rolled open 
the sliding door and intermingled odors of 
cedar, tar, and paint greeted him. The room 
was of good size and was neatly sheathed as 
an evident preparation for receiving a finish 
of stain which, however, had never been put 
on. There were four large windows closed 
in by lights of glass, a rough board floor, and 
a fireplace of field stone. Everywhere was 
dirt, cobwebs, sawdust, and shavings; and 
scattered about so closely there was scarcely 
space to step was a litter of nails, fragments of 
boards, and a conglomeration of tin cans of 
various sizes. 

Almost any one who beheld the chaos would 
have turned away discouraged. But not so 
Ted! The disorder was of no consequence 
in his eyes. Through all its dinginess and con- 
fusion he saw that the roof was tight, the win- 


GOING TO HOUSEKEEPING 29 

dows whole, and the interior quite capable of 
being swept out, scrubbed and put in order. 
That was all he wanted to know. Why, the 
place could be made into a little heaven! Al- 
ready he could see it transformed into a dwell- 
ing of the utmost comfort. He had remodel- 
led many a worse spot, — the barn loft in Ver- 
mont, for example, and made it habitable. 
One had only to secure a table, a chair or two, 
build a bunk and get a mattress, and the trick 
was turned. 

How proud he should be to have such a 
dwelling for his own! 

He could hardly restrain himself from 
rolling up his sleeves and going to work 
then and there. Fearing, however, that Mr. 
Wharton might be awaiting his report, he re- 
luctantly closed the door again, turned the 
key in it, and hurried back to the manager’s 
office. 

“ Well,” inquired the elder man, spinning 
around in his desk chair as the boy entered 
and noting the glow in the youthful face, 
“ how did you find things at the shack? Any 
hope in the place? ” 

“Hope!” repeated Ted. “Why, sir, the 
house is corking! Of course, it is dirty now 
but I could clean it up and put it in bully 
shape. All I ’d need would be to build a bunk, 
get a few pieces of furniture, and the place 
would be cosy as anything. If you ’ll say the 


30 


TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


word, I ’ll start right in to-night after work 
and — ” 

“ Why wait until to-night? ” came drily 
from the manager. 

“Why — er — I thought perhaps — you 
see there is the corn — ” 

“Never mind the corn,” Mr. Wharton in- 
terrupted. 

“ You mean I could go right ahead now? ” 
asked Ted eagerly. 

“ Certainly. You are doing this for our 
accommodation, not for your own, and there 
is no earthly reason why you should perform 
the work outside your regular hours.” 

“ But it is for my accommodation, too,” put 
in the lad with characteristic candor. 

“ I am very glad if it happens to be,” 
nodded Mr. Wharton. “ So much the better. 
But at any rate, you are not going to take 
your recreation time for the job. Now before 
you go, tell me your ideas as to furnishings. 
You will need some things, of course.” 

“ Not much,” Ted answered quickly. “ As 
I said, I can knock together a bunk and rough 
table myself. If I could just have a couple 
of chairs — ” 

Mr. Wharton smiled at the modesty of the 
request. 

“ Suppose we leave the furnishing until 
later,” said he, turning back to his desk with 
a gesture of dismissal. “ I may drop round 


GOING TO HOUSEKEEPING 31 

there some time to-day while you ’re working. 
We can then decide more fully upon what is 
necessary. You’ll find brooms, mops, rags, 
and water in the barn, you know. Now be off. 
I ’m busy.” 

Away went Ted, only too eager to obey. 
In no time he was laden with all the para- 
phernalia he desired. He stopped at Stevens’ 
cottage only long enough to add to his equip- 
ment a pail of steaming water and then, stag- 
gering under the weight of his burden of im- 
plements, made his way to the shack. Once 
there he threw off his coat, removed his collar 
and tie, rolled up his sleeves, and went to work. 
First he cleared the bulk of rubbish from the 
room and set it outside; then he swept up the 
floor and mopped it with hot suds; afterwards 
he washed the windows and rubbed them until 
they shone. Often he had watched his mother 
and sisters, who were well trained New Eng- 
land housekeepers, perform similar offices and 
therefore he knew exactly how such things 
should be done. It took him a solid morning 
to render the interior spotless and just as he 
was pausing to view his handiwork with weary 
satisfaction Mr. Wharton came striding in at 
the door. 

“ Mercy on us! ” gasped the newcomer with 
amazement. “ You have been busy! Why, 
I had no idea there were such possibilities in 
this place. The room is actually a pretty one, 


32 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

is n’t it? We shall be able to fix you up snug 
as a bug in a rug here.” He ran his eye 
quickly about. “ If you put your bunk be- 
tween the windows, you will get plenty of air. 
You ’ll need window shades, some comfortable 
chairs, a bureau, a table — ” 

“ I think I can make a table myself,” Ted 
put in timidly. “ That is, if I can have some 
boards.” 

“No, no, no! There are boards enough. 
But you do n’t want a makeshift thing like 
that. If you are going to have books and per- 
haps read or study, you must have something 
that will stand solidly on four legs. I may be 
able to root a table out of some corner. Then 
there will be bedding — ” 

“ I can bring that from home.” 

“ All right. We ’ll count on you to supply 
that if you are sure you have it to spare. I ’ll 
be responsible for the rest.” He stopped an 
instant to glance into the boy’s face then added 
kindly, “ So you think you are going to like 
your new quarters, eh? ” 

“You bet I am!” 

“That’s good! And by the by, I have ar- 
ranged for you to have your meals with 
Stevens and his wife. They like you and were 
glad to take you in. Only you must be prompt 
and not make them wait for you. Should 
you prove yourself a bother they might turn 
you out.” 


GOING TO HOUSEKEEPING 


33 


“ I ’ll be on hand, sir.” 

“ See that you are. They have breakfast at 
seven, dinner at twelve, and supper at six. 
Whenever you decide to spend Sunday with 
your family, or take any meals elsewhere, you 
must, of course, be thoughtful enough to 
announce beforehand that you are to be 
away.” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

Ted waited a few moments and then, as Mr. 
Wharton appeared to be on the point of leav- 
ing, he asked with hesitancy: 

“ How — how — much will my meals 
cost? ” 

An intonation of anxiety rang in the ques- 
tion. 

“ Your meals are our hunt,” Mr. Wharton 
replied instantly. “ We shall see to those.” 

“ But — but — ” 

“ You ’ll be worth your board to the Fernald 
estates, never fear, my lad ; so put it all out of 
your mind and do n’t think of it any more. 
All is, should we ask of you some little extra 
service now and then, I am sure you will will- 
ingly perform it, won’t you? ” 

“ Sure! ” came with emphatic heartiness. 

“ Then I do n’t see but everything is settled,” 
the manager declared, as he started back 
through the grove of pines. “ I gave orders 
up at the toolhouse that you were to have 
whatever boards, nails, and tools you wanted, 


34 


TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


so do n’t hesitate to sail in and hunt up any- 
thing you need.” 

“ You are mighty kind, sir.” 

“ Pooh, pooh. Nonsense ! Are n’t you im- 
proving the Fernald property, I ’d like to 
know? ” Mr. Wharton laughed. “ This boat- 
house has been an eyesore for years. We shall 
be glad enough to have it fixed up and used for 
something.” 


CHAPTER IV 


THE FIRST NIGHT IN THE SHACK 

THROUGHOUT the long summer afternoon 
Ted worked on, fitting up his new quarters. 
Not only did he make a comfortable bunk for 
himself such as he had frequently constructed 
when at logging or sugaring-off camps in Ver- 
mont, but having several boards left he built 
along the racks originally intended for canoes 
some shelves for the books he meant to bring 
from home. By late afternoon he had finished 
all it was possible for him to do and he decided 
to go to Freeman’s Falls and join his own fam- 
ily at supper, and while there collect the pos- 
sessions he wished to transfer to the shack. 

Accordingly he washed up and started out. 

It was a little late when he reached the house 
and already his father and sisters were at 
table. 

“ Mercy on us, Ted, what under the sun 
have you been doing until this time of night? ” 
demanded Mr. Turner. “ I should call from 
seven in the morning until seven at night a 
pretty long day.” 

“ Oh, I have n’t been working all this time,” 
laughed the boy. “ Or at least, if I have, I 


36 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

have been having the time of my life doing it.” 

Eagerly, and with youthful enthusiasm, he 
poured out the tale of the day’s happenings 
while the others listened. 

“ So you are starting out housekeeping, are 
you?” chuckled Mr. Turner, when the nar- 
rative was finished. “ It certainly ain’t a bad 
idea. Not that we ’re glad to get rid of you — 
although I will admit we ain’t got the room 
here that I wish we had. It is the amount of 
time you ’ll save and the strength, too, that I ’m 
thinking of. It must be a good three miles up 
to Aldercliffe and Pine Lea is at least two 
miles farther. Being on the spot is going to 
make a lot of difference. But how are you 
going to get along? What will you do for 
food? I ain’t going to have you eating stuff 
out of tin cans.” 

“ Oh, you need n’t worry about me, Dad. 
Mr. Wharton has arranged for me to take my 
meals with Mr. and Mrs. Stevens who have 
a cottage on the place. Stevens is the head 
farmer, you know.” 

“ A pretty penny that will cost you! What 
does the man think you are — a millionaire? ” 

“ Mr. Wharton told me the Fernalds would 
see to the bill.” 

“Oh! That’s another matter,” ejaculated 
Mr. Turner, entirely mollified. “ I will say 
it’s pretty decent of Mr. Wharton. Seems 
to me he is doing a good deal for you.” 


FIRST NIGHT IN THE SHACK 37 
“ Yes, he is.” 

“ Well, all is you must do your full share 
in return so he won’t lose anything by it.” 
The elder man paused thoughtfully. “ Ain’t 
there anything we could do to help out? Per- 
haps we could donate something toward your 
furnishings.” 

“ Mr. Wharton said if I could supply my 
own bedding — ” 

“ We certainly can do that,” put in Ruth 
quickly. “ There is a trunkful of extra com- 
forters and blankets in the back room that I 
should be thankful enough to ship off some- 
where else. And would n’t you like some cur- 
tains? Seems to me they ’d make it cosy and 
homelike. I ’ve a piece of old chintz we ’ve 
never used. Why not make it into curtains 
and do away with buying window shades? ” 

“ That would be great! ” 

“ It would be lots more cheerful,” remarked 
Nancy. “ What kind of a bed have you got? ” 
“ I ’ve built a wooden bunk — two bunks, in 
fact — one over the other like the berths in a 
ship. I thought perhaps sometime Dad 
might want to come up and visit me ; and while 
I was at it, it was no more work to make two 
beds than one.” 

Mr. Turner smiled in friendly fashion into 
his son’s eyes. The two were great pals and it 
pleased him that the lad should have included 
him in his plans. 


3 8 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

“ Beds like that will do all very well for a 
night or two; but for a steady thing they will 
be darned uncomfortable. Cover ’em with 
pine boughs after a long tramp through the 
woods and they seem like heaven ; but try ’em 
day after day and they cease to be a joke. 
Was n’t there a wire spring round here some- 
where, Ruth? Seems to me I remember 
it standing up against something. Why 
would n’t that be the very thing? You could 
fasten it in place and have a bed good as you 
have at home.” 

“ That ’s a corking idea, Dad! ” 

“ I wish we could go up and see the place,” 
Ruth suggested. “ I am crazy to know what 
it looks like. Besides, I want to measure the 
windows.” 

“ Maybe we could run up there to-night,” 
her father replied rising. “ It is not late and 
the Maguires said they would take us out for 
a little spin in their Ford before dark. They 
might enjoy riding up to Aldercliffe and be 
quite willing we should take along the spring 
bed. Mat is a kind soul and I have n’t a doubt 
he ’d be glad to do us a favor. Run down and 
ask him, Ted; or wait — I ’ll go myself.” 

The Maguires had the apartment just be- 
low the Turner’s and Mat, a thrifty and good- 
humored Irishman, was one of the night watch- 
men at the Fernald mills. He had a plump 
little wife, but as there were no children he 


FIRST NIGHT IN THE SHACK 39 

had been able to save more money than had 
some of his neighbors, and in consequence had 
purchased a small car which it was his delight 
to use for the benefit of his friends. In fact, 
he often called it the Maguire jitney, and the 
joke never became threadbare to his simple 
mind, for every time he made it he laughed 
as heartily as if he had never heard it before, 
and so did everybody else. Therefore no 
sooner had Mr. Turner proposed his plan than 
Mat was all eagerness to further the project. 

“ Sure I ’ll take you — as many of you as 
can pile in, and the spring bed, too! If you 
do n’t mind the inconvenience of the luggage, 
I do n’t. And tell Ted to bring along anything 
else he ’d like to carry. We can pack you all 
in and the stuff on top of you. ’Twill be easy 
enough. Just make ready as soon as you can, 
so the dark won’t catch us.” 

You may be sure the Turners needed no 
second bidding. Ruth and Nancy scrambled 
the supper dishes out of the way while Ted 
and his father hauled the wire spring out, 
brushed it, and dragged it downstairs. After- 
ward Ted collected his box of electrical trea- 
sures, his books, and clothing. What he would 
do with all these things he did not stop to 
inquire. The chance to transfer them was at 
hand and he seized it with avidity. His be- 
longings might as well be stored in the shack 
as anywhere else,— better, far better, for the 


40 


TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


space they left behind would be very welcome 
to the Turner household. 

Therefore with many a laugh, the party 
crowded into the waiting car and set out for 
Aldercliffe; and when at length they arrived 
at the house in the pines and Ted unlocked the 
sliding doors and pushed them wide open, 
ushering in his guests, what a landholder he 
felt! 

“ My, but this is a tidy little place! ” Ma- 
guire ejaculated. “And it’s not so little, 
either. Why, it ’s a regular palace! Look at 
the fireplace and the four windows ! My eye ! 
And the tier of bunks is neat as a ship’s cabin. 
Bear a hand here with the spring. I ’m all of 
a quaver to see if it fits,” cried the man. 

“ I made the bunks regulation size, so I 
guess there won’t be any trouble about that,” 
Ted answered. 

“The head on the lad!” the Irishman 
cried. “Ain’t he the brainy one, though? 
You don’t catch him wool-gathering! Not 
he!” 

Nevertheless he was not content until the 
spring had been hoisted into place and he saw 
with his own eyes that it was exactly the 
proper size. “ Could anything be cuter! ” ob- 
served he with satisfaction. “ Now with a 
good mattress atop of that you will have a bed 
fit for a king. You ’ll be comfortable as if 
you were in a solid gold bedstead, laddie! ” 


FIRST NIGHT IN THE SHACK 


4i 


11 1 ’m afraid I may be too comfortable,” 
laughed Ted. u What if I should oversleep 
and not get to breakfast, or to work, on time! ” 

“ That would never do,” Mr. Turner said 
promptly. “ You must have an alarm clock. 
’Twould be but a poor return for Mr. Whar- 
ton’s kindness were you to come dawdling to 
work.” 

“ I guess you can trust Ted to be on time,” 
put in Ruth soothingly. “ He is seldom late 
— especially to meals . Even if he were to be 
late at other places, I should always be sure he 
would show up when there was anything to 
eat.” 

“ You bet I would,” announced the boy, 
with a good-humored grin. 

“ I shall have enough chintz for curtains for 
all your windows,” interrupted Nancy, who 
had been busy taking careful measurements 
during the conversation. “ We ’ll get some 
brass rods and make the hangings so they will 
slip back and forth easily; they will be much 
nicer than window shades.” 

“ Ain’t there nothin’ I can donate? ” in- 
quired Mat Maguire anxiously. “ A rag rug, 
now — why wouldn’t that be a good thing? 
The missus makes ’em by the dozen and our 
house is full of ’em. We ’re breakin’ our necks 
mornin’, noon, and night on ’em. A couple 
to lay down here would n’t be so bad, I hn 
thinking. You could put one beside your bed 


42 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

and another before the door to wipe your feet 
on. They ’d cheer the room up as well as help 
keep you warm. Just say the word, sonny, 
and you shall have ’em.” 

“ I ’d like them tremendously.” 

The kind-hearted Irishman beamed with 
pleasure. 

“ Sure, they ’ll be better out of our house 
than in it,” remarked he, trying to conceal his 
gratification. “ You can try stumbling over 
’em a spell instead of me. ’Twill be interest- 
ing to see which of us breaks his neck first.” 

It was amazing to see how furniture came 
pouring in at Ted’s bachelor quarters during 
the next few days. The chintz curtains were 
finished and hung; the Maguire rugs made 
their appearance; Mr. Turner produced a 
shiny alarm clock; and Nancy a roll of col- 
ored prints which she had cut from the maga- 
zines. 

“ You ’ll be wanting some pictures,” said 
she. “Tack these up somewhere. They’ll 
brighten up the room and cover the bare 
walls.” 

Thus it was that day by day the wee shack in 
the woods became more cheery and homelike. 

“ I ’ve managed to hunt up a few trap’s 
for you,” called Mr. Wharton one morning, as 
he met the boy going to work. “ If you want 
to run over to the cabin now and unlock the 
door, I ’ll send a man over with them.” 


FIRST NIGHT IN THE SHACK 43 

Want to! Ted was off in a second, impa- 
tient to see what new treasures he was to re- 
ceive. He had not long to wait, for soon one 
of the farm trucks came into sight, and the 
driver began to deposit its contents on the 
wooden platform which sloped from the door 
down to the river. 

As Ted helped the man unload, his eyes 
shone with delight. Could any gifts be rarer? 
To be sure the furniture was not new. In 
fact, some of it was old and even shabby with 
wear. But the things were all whole, and al- 
though they were simple they were serviceable 
and perhaps looked more in harmony with 
the old-fashioned curtains and the quaint rugs 
than if they had come fresh from the shop. 
There was a chest of drawers ; a rocking chair, 
a leather armchair, and a straight wooden 
chair; a mirror with frame of faded gilt; a 
good-sized wooden table; and, best of all, a 
much scarred, flat-topped desk. Ted had 
never owned a desk in all his life. Often he 
had dreamed of sitting behind one when he 
grew to be a man. But to have it now — 
here! To have it for his own! How it 
thrilled him! 

After the furniture was in place and the 
teamster had gone, he arranged his few papers 
and pencils in the desk drawers a score of 
times, trying them first in one spot and then in 
another. It was marvelous how much room 


44 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


there was in such an article of furniture. 
What did men use to fill up such a mighty 
receptacle, anyway? Stretch his possessions 
as he would, they only made a scattered show- 
ing at the bottom of three of the drawers. He 
laughed to see them lying there and hear them 
rattle about when he brought the drawers to 
with a click. However, it was very splendid 
to have a desk, whether one had anything to 
put in it or not, and perhaps in time he would 
be able to collect more pencils, rulers and 
blocks of paper. The contrast between not 
having any room at all for his things and then 
so much that he did not know what to do with 
it was amusing. 

Now at last he was fully equipped to take up 
residence in his new abode and every instant he 
could snatch from his duties that day he em- 
ployed in settling his furniture, making up 
his bed, filling his water pitcher from the river 
and completing his final preparations for resi- 
dence at the boathouse. That night he moved 
in. 

Nothing had been omitted that would con- 
tribute to his comfort. Mr. Wharton had 
given him screens for the windows and across 
the broad door he had tacked a curtain of net- 
ting that could be dropped or pushed aside at 
will. The candlelight glowing from a pair 
of old brass candlesticks on the shelf above 
the fireplace contributed rather than took away 


FIRST NIGHT IN THE SHACK 45 

from the effect and to his surprise the room 
assumed under the mellow radiance a quality 
actually aesthetic and beautiful. 

“ I do n’t believe Aldercliffe or Pine Lea 
have anything better than this to offer,” the 
boy murmured aloud, as he looked about him 
with pride. “ I ’d give anything to have Mr. 
Wharton see it now that it ’s done! ” 

Strangely enough, the opportunity to ex- 
hibit his kingdom followed on the very heels 
of his desire, for while he was arranging the 
last few books he had brought from home on 
the shelf above his desk he heard a tap at the 
door. 

“ Are you in bed, son? ” called the manager. 
“ I saw your light and just dropped round to 
see if you had everything you wanted.” 

Rushing to the door, Ted threw it open. 

“ I have n’t begun to go to bed yet,” re- 
turned he. “ I ’ve been too excited. How 
kind of you to come ! ” 

“ Curiosity! Curiosity! ” responded the man 
hastily. Although Ted knew well that the 
comment was a libel, he laughed as Mr. Whar- 
ton came in, drawing the door together be- 
hind him. 

“ By Jove! ” burst out the manager, glanc- 
ing about the room. 

“ You like it? ” 

“Why — what in goodness have you done 
to the place ? I — I — mercy on us ! ” 


46 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

“You do like it then?” the boy insisted 
eagerly. 

“ Like it! Why, you ’ve made it into a regu- 
lar little palace. I ’d no idea such a thing was 
possible. Where did you get your candle- 
sticks and your andirons? ” 

“ From home. We have radiators in the 
apartment and so my sisters had stored them 
away and were only too glad to have me take 
them.” 

“Humph! And your curtains came from 
home, too? ” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ Well, you Ve missed your calling, is all I 
can say. You belong in the interior decorating 
business,” asserted Mr. Wharton. “ Wait un- 
til Mr. Clarence sees this place.” Again the 
elder man looked critically round the interior. 
“ I would n’t mind living here myself — 
hanged if I would. The only thing I do n’t 
like is those candles. There is a good deal of 
a draught here and you are too near the pines 
to risk a fire. Electricity would be safer.” 

Whistling softly to himself, he began to 
walk thoughtfully about. 

“ I suppose,” he presently went on, “ it 
would be a simple enough matter to run wires 
over here from the barn.” 

“ Would n’t that be bully! ” 

“ You ’d like it?” 

“ Yes, siree! ” 


FIRST NIGHT IN THE SHACK 47 

The manager took up his hat 

“ Well, we ’ll see what can be done,” he an- 
swered, moving toward the door. 

But on the threshold he stopped once more 
and looked about. 

“ I ’m going to bring some of the Fernalds 
over here to see the place,” observed he. “ For 
some time Mr. Clarence has been complaining 
that this shack was a blot on the estate and 
threatening to pull it down. He ’d better have 
a peep at it now. You may find he ’ll be tak- 
ing it away from you.” 

He saw a startled look leap into the boy’s 
eyes. 

“No, no, sonny! Have no fears. I was 
only joking,” he added. “ Nevertheless, the 
house will certainly be a surprise to anybody 
who saw it a week ago. I would n’t have be- 
lieved such a transformation was possible.” 

Then as he disappeared with his flash-light 
through the windings of the pine woods he 
called : 

“ We ’ll see about that electric wiring. I 
imagine it won’t be much of a job, and I should 
breathe easier to eliminate those candles, 
pretty as they are. Until something is done, 
just be careful not to set yourself and us afire ! ” 

With that he was gone. 

Ted dropped the screen and loitered a mo- 
ment in the doorway, looking out into the 
night. Before him stretched the river; so near 


4 8 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

was it that he could hear the musical 
lappings of its waters among the tall grasses 
that bordered the stream. From the ground, 
matted thickly with pine needles, rose a warm, 
sun-scorched fragrance heavy with sleep. 

The boy stretched his arms and yawned. 
Then he rolled the doors together and began 
to undress. 

Suddenly he paused with one shoe in his 
hand. A thought had come to him. If Mr. 
Wharton ran the electric wires over to the 
shack, what was to prevent him from utilizing 
the current for some of his own contrivances? 
Why, he could, perhaps, put his wireless in- 
struments into operation and rig up a tele- 
phone in his little dwelling. What fun it 
would be to unearth his treasures from the big 
wooden box in which they had been so long 
packed away and set them up here where they 
would interfere with no one but himself! 

He hoped with all his heart the manager 
would continue to be nervous about those 
candles. 


CHAPTER y 


A VISITOR 

Fervent as this wish was, it was several 
days before Ted saw Mr. Wharton again and 
in the meantime the boy began to adapt him- 
self to his new mode of living with a will. His 
alarm clock got him up in the morning in time 
for a plunge in the river and after a brisk 
rub-down he was off to breakfast with the Stev- 
ens’s, whose cottage was one of a tiny colony 
of bungalows where lived the chauffeurs, head 
gardener, electricians, and others who held 
important positions on the two estates. 

It did not take many days for Ted to become 
thoroughly at home in the pretty cement house 
where he discovered many slight services he 
could perform for Mrs. Stevens during the 
scraps of leisure left him after meals. His 
farm training had rendered him very handy 
with tools and he was quick to see little things 
which needed to be done. Moreover, the will- 
ingness to help, which from the moment of his 
advent to Aldercliffe and Pine Lea had made 
him a favorite with Mr. Wharton and the men, 
speedily won for him a place with the kindly 
farmer’s wife. 


5 o TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

Had Ted known it, she had been none too 
well pleased at the prospect of adopting into 
her home a ravenous young lad who might, 
nay, probably would be untidy and trouble- 
some; but she did not dare oppose Mr. Whar- 
ton when the plan was suggested. Neverthe- 
less, although she consented, she grumbled not 
a little to her husband about the inconvenience 
of the scheme. The money offered her by the 
manager had been the only redeeming factor 
in the case. Quite ignorant of these conditions, 
Ted had made his advent into the house and 
she soon found to her amazement that the daily 
coming of her cheery boarder became an event 
which she anticipated with motherly interest. 

“ He is such a well-spoken boy and so nice to 
have round,” asserted she to Mr. Wharton. 
“ Not a mite of trouble, either. In fact, he ’s a 
hundred times handier than my own man, who 
although he can make a garden thrive can’t 
drive a nail straight to save his life. And 
there ’s never any fussing about his food. He 
eats everything and enjoys it. I believe Stev- 
ens and I were getting dreadful pokey all 
alone here by ourselves. The lad has bright- 
ened us up no end. We would n’t part with 
him now for anything.” 

Thus it was that Ted Turner made his way. 
His password was usefulness. He never 
measured the hours he worked by the clock, 
never was too busy or too tired to fill in a gap ; 


A VISITOR 


5i 

and although he was popular with everybody, 
and a favorite with those in authority, he never 
took advantage of his position to escape toil 
or obtain privileges. In fact, he worked 
harder if anything than did the other men, 
and as soon as his associates saw that the in- 
dulgence granted him did not transform him 
into a prig, they ceased any jealousy they cher- 
ished and accorded him their cordial good- 
will. For Ted was always modestly respectful 
toward older persons; and if he knew more 
about farming and some other things than did 
a good many of the laborers on the place, he 
did not push himself forward or boast of his 
superiority. 

Consequently when he ventured to say, “ I 
wonder if somebody would help me with this 
harrow? ” he would receive a dozen eager re- 
sponses, the men never suspecting that Mr. 
Wharton had given this little chap authority 
to order them to aid with the harrowing of the 
field. Instead each workman thought his 
cooperation a free-will offering and enjoyed 
giving it. 

Thus a fortnight passed and no one could 
have been happier than was Ted Turner on a 
certain clear June evening. He had finished 
his Saturday night supper of baked beans and 
brown bread and after it was over had lin- 
gered to feed the Stevens’s hens, in order to let 
Mr. Stevens go early to Freeman’s Falls to 


52 


TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


purchase the Sunday dinner. As a result, it 
was later than usual when he started out for 
his camp on the river’s brink. The long, busy 
day was over; he was tired and the prospect of 
his comfortable bed was very alluring. It was 
some distance to the shack, and before he was 
halfway through the pine woods that separated 
Aldercliffe from Pine Lea darkness had fallen, 
and he was compelled to move cautiously 
along the narrow, curving trail. How black 
the night was! A storm must be brewing, 
thought he, as he glanced up into the starless 
heavens. Stumbling over the rough and slip- 
pery ground on he went. Then suddenly he 
rounded a turn in the path and stood arrested 
with terror. 

Not more than a rod away, half concealed 
in the denseness of the sweeping branches rose 
his little shack, a blaze of light! A wave of 
consternation turned him cold and two solu- 
tions of the mystery immediately flashed into 
his mind — fire and marauders. Either some- 
thing had ignited in the interior of the house; 
or, since it was isolated and had long been 
known to be vacant, strolling mischief-makers 
had broken in and were ransacking it. He re- 
membered now that he had left a window open 
when he had gone off in the morning. Doubt- 
less thieves were at this moment busy appro- 
priating his possessions. Of course it could 
not be any of the Fernald workmen. They 


A VISITOR 


53 


were too friendly and honorable to commit 
such a dastardly deed. No, it was some one 
from outside. Was it not possible men had 
come down the river in a boat from Melton, 
the village above, and spying the house had 
made a landing and encamped there for the 
night? 

Well, live or die, he must know who his un- 
welcome guests were. It would be cowardly 
to leave them in possession of the place and 
make no attempt to discover their identity. 
For that invaders were inside the shack he was 
now certain. It was not a fire. There was 
neither smoke nor flame. Softly he crept 
nearer, the thick matting of pine needles muf- 
fling his footsteps. But how his heart beat! 
Suppose a twig should crack beneath his feet 
and warn the vandals of his approach? And 
suppose they rushed out, caught him, and — 
for a moment he halted with fear; then, sum- 
moning every particle of courage he possessed, 
he tiptoed on and contrived to reach one of the 
windows. 

There he halted, staring, his knees weak 
from surging reaction. 

Instead of the company of bandits his mind 
had pictured, there in the rocker sat Mr. 
Wharton and opposite him, in the great leather 
armchair, was Mr. Clarence Fernald. The 
latter fact would have been astounding enough. 
But the marvel did not cease there. The light 


54 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

suffusing the small room came from no flicker- 
ing candles but glowed steadily from two 
strong, unblinking electric lights, one of which 
had been connected with a low lamp on his 
desk, and the other with a fixture in the ceiling. 

Ted could scarcely believe his eyes. All 
day, during his absence, electricians must have 
been busy. How carefully they had guarded 
their secret. Why, he had talked with Tim 
Toyer that very morning on his way to work 
and Tim had breathed no word, although he 
was the head electrician and had charge of 
the dynamo which generated the current both 
for Aldercliffe and Pine Lea. The Fernalds 
had never depended on Freeman’s Falls for 
their electricity; on the contrary, they main- 
tained a small plant of their own and used the 
power for a score of purposes on the two 
estates. 

Evidently either Mr. Wharton or Mr. Clar- 
ence Fernald himself must have given the or- 
der which had with such Aladdin-like magic 
been so promptly and mysteriously fulfilled. 
It certainly was kind of them to do this and 
Ted determined they should not find him 
wanting in gratitude. Pocketing his shyness, 
he opened the door and stepped into the room. 
“ Well, youngster, I thought it was about time 
the host made his appearance,” exclaimed Mr. 
Wharton. “ We could not have waited much 
longer. Mr. Fernald, this is Ted Turner, 


A VISITOR 


55 

the lad I have been telling you about.” 

Ted waited. 

The mill-owner nodded, let his eye travel 
over the boy’s flushed face, and then, as if satis- 
fied by what he saw there, he put out his hand. 

“ I have been hearing very excellent reports 
of you, Turner,” said he, “ and I wished to 
investigate for myself the quarters they have 
given you to live in. You ’ve made a mighty 
shipshape little den of this place.” 

“ It did n’t need very much done to it,” pro- 
tested Ted, blushing under the fixed gaze of 
the great man. “ I just cleaned it up and ar- 
ranged the furniture. Mr. Wharton was kind 
enough to give me most of it.” 

“ I can’t claim any thanks,” laughed the 
manager. “ The traps I gave you were all 
cast-ofifs and not, in use. It is what you have 
done with them that is the marvel.” 

“ You certainly have turned your donations 
to good purpose,” Mr. Fernald observed. 
“ I ’ve been noticing your books in your ab- 
sence and see that most of them are textbooks 
on electricity. I judge you are interested in 
that sort of thing.” 

“ Yes, sir, I am.” 

“ Humph!” 

The financier drummed reflectively on the 
arm of his chair. 

“ How did you happen to go into that? ” he 
asked presently. 


56 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

“ I have been studying it at school. My 
father is letting me go through the high school 
— at least he hopes to let me finish my course 
there. I have been two years already. That 
is why I am working during the summer.” 

“ I see. And so you have been taking up 
electricity at school, eh? ” 

“ Yes, sir. I really am taking a business 
course. The science work in the laboratory is 
an extra that I just run in because I like it. 
My father wanted me to fit myself for busi- 
ness. He thought it would be better for me,” 
explained Ted. 

“ But you prefer the science? ” 

“ I am afraid I do, sir,” smiled Ted, with 
ingratiating honesty. “ But I do n’t mean to 
let it interfere with my regular work. I try 
to remember it is only a side issue.” 

Mr. Clarence Fernald did not answer and 
during his interval of silence Ted fell to spec- 
ulating on what he was thinking. Probably 
the magnate was disapproving of his still 
going to school and was saying to himself how 
much better it would have been had he been 
put into the mill and trained up there instead 
of having his head stuffed with stenography 
and electrical knowledge. 

“ What did you do in electricity? ” the elder 
man asked at length. 

“ Oh, I fussed around some with telephones, 
wireless, and telegraph instruments.” 


A VISITOR 


57 


Mr. Fernald smiled. 

“ Did you get where you could take mes- 
sages? ” inquired he with real interest. 

“ By telegraph? ” 

The financier nodded. 

“ I did a little at it,” replied Ted. “ Of 
course I was slow.” 

“ And what about wireless? ” 

u I got on better with that. I rigged up a 
small receiving station at home but when the 
war came I had to take it down.” 

“ So that outfit was yours, was it? ” com- 
mented Mr. Fernald. “ I noticed it one day 
when I was in the village. What luck did you 
have with it? ” 

“ Oh, I contrived to pick up messages with- 
in a short radius. My outfit was n’t very pow- 
erful.” 

“ I suppose not. And the telephone?” 

They saw an eager light leap into the lad’s 
eyes. 

“ I ’ve worked more at that than anything 
else,” replied he. “ You see one of the instru- 
ments at the school gave out and they set me 
to tinkering at it. In that way I got tremend- 
ously interested in it. Afterward some of us 
fellows did some experimenting and managed 
to concoct a crude one in the laboratory. It 
was n’t much of a telephone but we finally got 
it to work.” 

“ They tell me you are a good farmer as 


58 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

well as an electrician,” Mr. Fernald said. 

“ Oh, I was brought up on a farm, sir.” 

The great man rose. 

“ Well, mind you do n’t let your electricity 
make you forget your farming,” cautioned he, 
not unkindly. “We need you right where 
you are. Still I will own electricity is a 
pleasant pastime. You will have a current to 
work with now whenever you want to play 
with it. Just be sure you do n’t get a short cir- 
cuit and blow out my dynamo.” 

“ Do — do — you really mean I may use the 
current for experiments?” demanded Ted. 

Whether Mr. Fernald had made his remarks 
in jest or expected them to be taken seriously 
was not apparent; and if he were surprised at 
having the boy catch him up and hold him to 
account, he at least displayed not a trace of 
being taken unawares. For only an instant was 
he thoughtful, and that was while he paused 
and studied the countenance of the lad before 
him. 

“ Why, I do n’t know that I see any harm in 
your using the current for reasonable pur- 
poses,” he answered slowly, after an interval 
of meditation. “ You understand the dangers 
of running too many volts through your body 
and of crossing wires, do n’t you? ” 

“ Oh, yes, sir,” laughed Ted. 

“ I must confess I should not trust every boy 
with such a plaything,” continued the magnate, 


A VISITOR 


59 


“ but you seem to have a good head on your 
shoulders and I guess we can take a chance on 
you.” He moved silently across the room but 
on the threshold he turned and added with 
self-conscious hesitancy, “ By the way my — 
my — son, Mr. Laurie, chances to be interested 
in electricity, too. Perhaps some day he might 
drop in here and have a talk about this sort 
of thing.” 

“ I wish he would.” 

With a quiet glance the father seemed to 
thank the lad for his simple and natural reply. 
Both of them knew but too well that such an 
event could never be a casual happening, and 
that if poor Mr. Laurie ever dropped in at the 
shack it would be only when he was brought 
there, either in his wheel-chair or in the arms 
of some of the servants from Pine Lea. Nev- 
ertheless it was obvious that Mr. Fernald ap- 
preciated the manner in which Ted ignored 
these facts and suppressed his surprise at the 
unusual suggestion. Had Mr. Laurie’s drop- 
ping in been an ordinary occurrence no one 
could have treated it with less ceremony than 
did Ted. 

An echo of the gratitude the capitalist felt 
lingered in his voice when he said good night. 
It was both gentle and husky with emotion and 
the lad fell asleep marvelling that the men em- 
ployed at the mills should assert that the Fer- 
nalds were frigid and snobby. 


CHAPTER VI 


MORE GUESTS 

WHEN with shining eyes Ted told his father 
about Mr. Fernald’s visit to the shack, Mr. 
Turner simply shrugged his shoulders and 
smiled indulgently. 

“ Likely Mr. Clarence’s curiosity got the 
better of him,” said he, “ and he wanted to 
look your place over and see that it war n’t too 
good; or mebbe he just happened to be going 
by. He never would have taken the trouble to 
go that far out of his way if he had n’t had 
something up his sleeve. When men like him 
are too pleasant, I ’m afraid of ’em. And as 
for Mr. Laurie dropping in — why, his father 
and grandfather would no more let him asso- 
ciate with folks like us than they ’d let him 
jump headfirst into the river. We ain’t good 
enough for the Fernalds. Probably almost 
nobody on earth is. And when it comes to 
Mr. Laurie, why, in their opinion the boy 
does n’t live who is fit to sit in the same room 
with him.” 

Ted’s bright face clouded with disappoint- 
ment. 


MORE GUESTS 


6 1 

“ I never thought of Mr. Laurie feeling like 
that,” answered he. 

“ Oh, I ain’t saying Mr. Laurie himself is 
so high and mighty. He ain’t. The poor chap 
has nothing to be high and mighty about and 
he knows it. Anybody who is as dependent on 
others as he is can’t afford to tilt his nose up in 
the air and put on lugs. For all I know to the 
contrary he may be simple as a baby. It ’s his 
folks that think he ’s the king-pin and keep him 
in cotton wool.” Mr. Turner paused, his lip 
curling with scorn. “You’ll never see Mr. 
Laurie at your shack, mark my words. His 
people would not let him come even if he 
wanted to.” 

The light of eagerness in his son’s counte- 
nance died entirely. 

“ I suppose you ’re right,” admitted he 
slowly and with evident reluctance. 

Although he would not have confessed it, he 
had been anticipating, far more than he would 
have been willing to own, the coming of Mr. 
Laurie. Over and over again he had lived 
in imagination his meeting with this fairy 
prince whose grave, wistful face and pleasant 
smile had so strongly attracted him. He had 
speculated to himself as to what the other boy 
was like and had coveted the chance to speak 
to him, never realizing that they were not on 
an equal plane. Mr. Fernald’s suggestion of 
Laurie visiting the shack seemed the most 


62 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


natural thing in the world, and immediately 
after it had been made Ted’s fancy had run 
riot, and he had leaped beyond the first formal 
preliminaries to a time when he and Laurie 
Fernald would really know one another, even 
come to be genuine friends, perhaps. What 
sport two lads, interested in the same things, 
could have together! 

Ted had few companions who followed the 
bent of thought that he did. The fellows he 
knew either at school or in the town were ready 
enough to play football and baseball but al- 
most none of them, for example, wanted to 
sacrifice a pleasant Saturday to constructing 
a wireless outfit. One or two of them, it is 
true, had begun the job but they soon tired of 
it and either sat down to watch him work or 
had deserted him altogether. The only con- 
genial companion he had been able to count on 
had been the young assistant in the labo- 
ratory at school who, although he was not at 
all aged, was nevertheless years older than 
Ted. 

But with the mention of Mr. Laurie myriad 
dreams had flashed into his mind. Here was 
no prim old scholar but a lad like himself, who 
probably did not know much more about elec- 
trical matters than he. You would n’t feel 
ashamed to admit your ignorance before such 
a person, or own that you either did not know, 
or did not understand. You could blunder 


MORE GUESTS 


63 

along with such a companion to your heart’s 
content. Such had been his belief until now, 
with a dozen words, Ted saw his father shatter 
the illusion. No, of course Mr. Laurie would 
never come to the shack. It had been absurd 
to think it for a moment. And even if he did, 
it would only be as a lofty and unapproachable 
spectator. Mr. Fernald’s words were a subtly 
designed flattery intended to put him in good 
humor because he wanted something of him. 

What could it be? 

Perhaps he meant to oust him out of the 
boathouse and rebuild it, or possibly tear it 
down; or maybe he had taken a fancy to use 
it as it was and desired to be rid of Ted in some 
sort of pleasant fashion. Unquestionably the 
building belonged to Mr. Fernald and if he 
chose to reclaim it he had a perfect right to 
do so. 

Poor Ted ! With a crash his air castles tum- 
bled about his ears and the ecstasy of his mood 
gave way to apprehension and unhappiness. 
Each day he waited, expecting to hear through 
Mr. Wharton that Mr. Clarence Fernald had 
decided to use the shack for other purposes. 
Time slipped along, however, and no such 
tidings came. In the meanwhile Mr. Wharton 
made no further mention of the Fernalds and 
gradually Ted’s fears calmed down sufficiently 
for him to gain confidence enough to unpack 
his boxes of wire, his tools, and instruments. 


6 4 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

Nevertheless, in spite of this, his first enthu- 
siasm had seeped away and he did not attempt 
to go farther than to take the things out and 
look at them. 

Before his father had withered his ambitions 
by his pessimism, a score of ideas had danced 
through his brain. He had thought of run- 
ning a buzzer over to the Stevens’s bungalow 
in order that Mrs. Stevens might ring for him 
when she wanted him; and he had thought of 
connecting Mr. Wharton’s office with the 
shack by telephone. He felt sure he could do 
both these things and would have liked nothing 
better than try them. But now what was the 
use? If a little later on Mr. Fernald intended 
to take the shack away from him, it would be 
foolish to waste toil and material for nothing. 
For the present, at least, he much better hold 
off and see what happened. 

Yet notwithstanding this resolve, he did con- 
tinue to improve the appearance of the boat- 
house. Just why, he could not have told. Per- 
haps it was a vent for his disquietude. At any 
rate, having some scraps of board left and hear- 
ing the gardener say there were more gera- 
niums in the greenhouse than he knew what to 
do with, Ted made some windowboxes for the 
Stevens’s and himself, painted them green, and 
filled them with flowering plants. They really 
were very pretty and added a surprising touch 
of beauty to the dull, weather-stained little 


MORE GUESTS 65 

dwelling in the woods. Mr. Wharton was de- 
lighted and said so frankly. 

“ Your camp looks as attractive as a tea- 
house,” said he. “ You have no idea how gay 
the red flowers look among these dark pine 
trees. How came you to think of window- 
boxes? ” 

“ Oh, I do n’t know,” was Ted’s reply. 
“ The bits of board suggested it, I guess. Then 
Collins said the greenhouses were overstocked, 
and he seemed only too glad to get rid of his 
plants.” 

“ I ’ll bet he was,” responded Mr. Wharton. 
“ If there is anything he hates, it is to raise 
plants and not have them used. He always has 
to start more slips than he needs in case some 
of them do not root; when they do, he is 
swamped. Evidently you have helped him 
solve his problem for no sooner did the owners 
of the other bungalows see Stevens’s boxes than 
everybody wanted them. They all are pester- 
ing the carpenter for boards. It made old 
Mr. Fernald chuckle, for he likes flowers and 
is delighted to have the cottages on the place 
made attractive. He asked who started the 
notion; and when I told him it was you he 
said he had heard about you and wanted to see 
you some time.” 

This time Ted was less thrilled by the re- 
mark than he would have been a few days be- 
fore. A faint degree of his father’s scepticism 


66 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


had crept into him and the only reply he 
vouchsafed was a polite smile. It was absurd 
to fancy for an instant that the senior member 
of the Fernald company, the head of the firm, 
the owner of Aldercliffe, the great and rich 
Mr. Lawrence Fernald, would ever trouble 
himself to hunt up a boy who worked on the 
place. Ridiculous! 

Yet it was on the very day that he made these 
positive and scornful assertions to himself that 
he found this same mighty Mr. Lawrence Fer- 
nald on his doorstep. 

It was early Saturday afternoon, a time Ted 
always had for a holiday. He had not been 
to see his family for some time and he had 
made up his mind to start out directly after 
luncheon and go to Freeman’s Falls, where he 
would, perhaps, remain overnight. Therefore 
he came swinging through the trees, latchkey 
in hand, and hurriedly rounding the corner of 
the shack, he almost jostled into the river Mr. 
Lawrence Fernald who was loitering on the 
platform before the door. 

“ I beg your pardon, sir! ” he gasped. “ I 
did not know any one was here.” 

“ Nor did I, young man,” replied the ruffled 
millionaire. “You came like a thief in the 
night.” 

“ It is the pine needles, sir,” explained the 
boy simply. “ Unless you happen to step on a 
twig that cracks you do n’t hear a sound.” 


MORE GUESTS 


67 

The directness of the lad evidently pleased 
the elder man for he answered more kindly: 

“ It is quiet here, is n’t it? I did not know 
there was a spot within a radius of five miles 
that was so still. I was almost imagining my- 
self in the heart of the Maine woods before 
you came.” 

“ I never was in the Maine woods,” ven- 
tured Ted timidly, “ but if it is finer than this 
I ’d like to see it.” 

“ You like your quarters then? ” 

“ Indeed I do, sir.” 

“ And you ’re not afraid to stay way off here 
by yourself?” 

“ Oh, no! ” 

Mr. Fernald peered over the top of his 
glasses at the boy before him. 

“ Would you — would you care to come 
inside the shack?” Ted inquired after an 
interval of silence, during which Mr. Fer- 
nald had not taken his eyes from his face. 
“ It is very cosy indoors — at least I think 
so.” 

“ Since I am here I suppose I might just 
glance into the house,” was the capitalist’s 
rather magnificent retort. “ I do n’t often get 
around to this part of the estate. To-day I 
followed the river and came farther away from 
Aldercliffe than I intended. When I got to 
this point the sun was so pleasant here on the 
float that I lingered.” 


68 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

Nodding, Ted fitted the key into the pad- 
lock, turned it, and rolled the doors apart, al- 
lowing Mr. Fernald to pass within. The mill 
owner was a large man and as he stalked about, 
peering at the fireplace with its andirons of 
wrought metal, examining the chintz hangings, 
and casting his eye over the books on the shelf, 
he seemed to fill the entire room. Then sud- 
denly, having completed his circuit of the in- 
terior, he failed to bow himself out as Ted 
expected and instead dropped into the big 
leather armchair and proceeded to draw out 
a cigar. 

“ I suppose you do n’t mind if I smoke,” 
said he, at the same instant lighting a match. 

“ Oh, no. Dad always smokes,” replied the 
boy. 

“ Your father is in our shipping room, they 
tell me.” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ Where did you live before you came 
here?” 

“ Vermont.” 

“ Vermont, eh? ” commented the older man 
with interest. “ I was born in Vermont.” 

“ Were you? ” Ted ejaculated. “ I did n’t 
know that.” 

“ Yes, I was born in Vermont,” mused Mr. 
Fernald slowly. “ Born on a farm, as you no 
doubt were, and helped with the haying, milk- 
ing, and other chores.” 


MORE GUESTS 


6 9 

“ There were plenty of them,’’ put in the 
boy, forgetting for the moment whom he was 
addressing. 

“ That ’s right! ” was the instant and hearty 
response. “ There was precious little time left 
afterward for playing marbles or flying kites.” 

The lad standing opposite chuckled under- 
standing^ and the capitalist continued to puff 
at his cigar. 

“ Spring was the best time,” observed he 
after a moment, “ to steal off after the plowing 
and planting were done and wade up some 
brook — ” 

“ Where the water foamed over the rocks,” 
interrupted the boy, with sparkling eyes. 
“ We had a brook behind our house. There 
were great flat rocks in it and further up in 
the woods some fine, deep trout holes. All 
you had to do was to toss a line in there and 
the next you knew — ” 

“ Something would jump for it,” cried the 
millionaire, breaking in turn into the conver- 
sation and rubbing his hands. “ I remember 
hauling a two-pounder out of just such a spot. 
Jove, but he was a fighter! I can see him now, 
thrashing about in the water. I was n’t 
equipped with a rod of split bamboo, a reel, 
and scores of flies in those days. A hook, a 
worm, and a stick you ’d cut yourself was your 
outfit. Nevertheless I managed to land my 
fish for all that.” 


7 ° 


TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


Lured by the subject Ted came nearer. 

“ Any pickerel holes where you lived?” 
inquired Mr. Fernald boyishly. 

“You bet there were!” replied the lad. 
“ We had a black, scraggy pond two miles 
away, dotted with stumps and rotting tree 
trunks. About sundown we fellows would 
steal a leaky old punt anchored there and pole 
along the water’s edge until we reached a place 
where the water was deep, and then we ’d toss 
a line in among the roots. It was n’t long be- 
fore there would be something doing,” con- 
cluded he, with a merry laugh. 

“ How gamey those fish are! ” observed Mr. 
Fernald reminiscently. “ And bass are sporty, 
too.” 

“ I ’d rather fish for bass than anything 
else! ” asserted Ted. 

“ Ever tried landlocked salmon? ” 

“ N — o. We did n’t get those.” 

“That’s what you get in Maine and New 
Brunswick,” explained Mr. Fernald. “ I 
do n’t know, though, that they are any more 
fun to land than a good, spirited bass. I often 
think that all these fashionable camps with 
their guides, and canoes, and fishing tackles 
of the latest variety can’t touch a Vermont 
brook just after the ice has thawed. I ’d give 
all I own to live one of those days of my boy- 
hood over again ! ” 

“ So would I! ” echoed Ted. 


MORE GUESTS 


7i 


“ Pooh, nonsense!” objected Mr. Fernald. 
“ You are young and will probably scramble 
over the rocks for years to come. But I ’m an 
old chap, too stiff in the joints now to wade a 
brook. Still it is a pleasure to go back to it 
in your mind.” 

His face became grave, then lighted with a 
quick smile. 

“ I ’ll wager the material for those curtains 
of yours never was bought round here. Did n’t 
that come from Vermont? And the andirons, 
too?” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ Ah, I knew it! We had some of that old 
shiny chintz at home for curtains round my 
mother’s four-poster bed.” 

He rose and began to pace the room thought- 
fully. 

“ Some day my son is going to bring his boy 
over here,” he remarked. “ He is interested 
in electricity and knows quite a bit about it. 
I was always attracted to science when I was a 
youngster. I — ” 

He got no further for there was a stir out- 
side, a sound of voices, and a snapping of dry 
twigs; and as Ted glanced through the broad 
frame of the doorway he saw to his amazement 
Mr. Clarence Fernald wheel up the incline 
just outside a rubber-tired chair in which sat 
Laurie. 

“ I declare if here is n’t my grandson now! ” 


72 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

exclaimed Mr. Fernald, bustling toward the 
entrance of the shack. 

Ah, it needed no great perception on Ted’s 
part to interpret the pride, affection, and eager- 
ness of the words; in the tones of the elder 
man’s voice rang echoes of adoration, hope, 
fear, and disappointment. The millowner, 
however, speedily put them all to rout by cry- 
ing heartily: 

“ Well, well ! This seems to be a Fernald 
reunion! ” 

“ Grandfather! Are you here? ” cried the 
boy in the chair, extending his thin hand with 
the vivid smile Ted so well remembered. 

“ Indeed I am! Young Turner and I were 
just speaking of you. I told him you were 
coming to see him some day.” 

Laurie glanced toward Ted. 

“ It is nice of you to let me come and visit 
you,” he said, with easy friendliness. “ What 
a pretty place you have and how gay the flow- 
ers are ! And the river is beautiful ! Our view 
of it from Pine Lea is not half so lovely as 
this.” 

“ Perhaps you might like to sit here on the 
platform for a while,” suggested Ted, coming 
forward rather shyly and smiling down into 
the lad’s eyes. Laurie returned the smile with 
delightful candor. 

“You’re Ted Turner, aren’t you?” in- 
quired he. “ They ’ve told me about you and 


MORE GUESTS 


73 


how many things you can do. I could not rest 
until I had seen the shack. Besides, Dad says 
you have some books on electricity; I want 
to see them. And I ’ve brought you some of 
mine. They ’re in a package somewhere un- 
der my feet.” 

“ That was mighty kind of you,” answered 
Ted, as he stooped to secure the volumes. 

“ Not a bit. My tutor, Mr. Hazen, got them 
for me and some of them are corking — not at 
all dry and stupid as books often are. If you 
have n’t seen them already, I know you ’ll like 
them.” 

How easily and naturally it all came about! 
Before they knew it, Mr. Fernald was talking, 
Mr. Clarence Fernald was talking, Laurie 
was talking, and Ted himself was talking. 
Sitting there so idly in the sunshine they joked, 
told stories, and watched the river as it crept 
lazily along, reflecting on its smooth surface 
the gold and azure of the June day. During 
the pauses they listened to the whispering 
music of the pines and drank in their sleepy 
fragrance. More than once Ted pinched him- 
self to make certain that he was really awake. 
It all seemed so unbelievable ; and yet, withal, 
there was something so simple and suitable 
about it. 

By and by Mr. Clarence rose, stretched his 
arms, and began boyishly to skip stones across 
the stream; then Ted tried his skill; and 


74 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

presently, not to be outdone by the others, 
Grandfather Fernald cast aside his dignity 
and peeling off his coat joined in the sport. 

How Laurie laughed, and how he clapped 
his hands when one of his grandfather’s peb- 
bles skimmed the surface of the water six times 
before it disappeared amid a series of widen- 
ing ripples. After this they all were simply 
boys together, calling, shouting, and jesting 
with one another in good-humored rivalry. 
What use was it then ever again to attempt to 
be austere and unapproachable Fernalds? No 
use in the world ! 

Although Mr. Fernald, senior, mopped his 
brow and slipped back into his coat with a 
shadow of surprise when he came to and re- 
alized what he had been doing, he did not 
seem to mind greatly having lapsed from sev- 
enty years to seven. The fact that he had fur- 
nished Laurie with amusement was worth a 
certain loss of dignity. 

Ah, it would have taken an outsider days, 
weeks, months, perhaps years to have broken 
through the conventionalities and beheld the 
Fernalds as Ted saw them that day. It was 
the magic of the sunshine, the sparkle of the 
creeping river, the mysterious spell of the pines 
that had wrought the enchantment. Perhaps, 
too, the memory of his Vermont boyhood had 
risen freshly to Grandfather Fernald’s mind. 

When the shadows lengthened and the glint 


MORE GUESTS 


75 


of gold faded from the river, they went indoors 
and Mr. Laurie was wheeled about that he 
might inspect every corner of the little house 
of which he had heard so much. This he did 
with the keenest delight and it was only after 
both his father and his grandfather had prom- 
ised to bring him again that he could be per- 
suaded to be carried back to Pine Lea. As he 
disappeared among the windings of the trees, 
he waved his hand to Ted and called: 

“ I ’ll see you some day next week, Ted. 
Mr. Hazen, my tutor, shall bring me round 
here some afternoon when you have finished 
work. I suppose you do n’t get through much 
before five, do you? ” 

“ No, I do n’t.” 

“ Oh, any time you want to see Ted I guess 
he can be let off early,” cried both Mr. Fer- 
nald and Mr. Clarence in one breath. 

Then as Mr. Clarence pushed the wheel- 
chair farther into the dusk of the pines, Mr. 
Fernald turned toward Ted and added in an 
undertone : 

“ It ’s done the lad good to come. I have n’t 
seen him in such high spirits for days. We ’ll 
fix things up with Wharton so that whenever 
he fancies to come here you can be on hand. 
The poor boy has n’t many pleasures and he 
sees few persons of his own age.” 


CHAPTER VII 


MR. LAURIE 

The visits of Laurie during the following 
two weeks became very frequent; and such 
pleasure did they afford him that orders were 
issued for Ted Turner to knock off work each 
day at four o’clock and return to the shack, 
where almost invariably he found his new ac- 
quaintance awaiting him. It was long since 
Laurie Fernald had had a person of his own 
age to talk with. In fact, he had never before 
seen a lad whose friendship he desired. Most 
boys were so well and strong that they had no 
conception of what it meant not to be so, and 
their very robustness and vitality overwhelmed 
a personality as sensitively attuned as was that 
of Laurie Fernald. He shrank from their 
pity, their blundering sympathy, their patron- 
age. 

But in Ted Turner he immediately felt he 
had nothing to dread. He might have been a 
Marathon athlete, so far as any hint to the con- 
trary went. Ted appeared never to notice his 
disability or to be conscious of any difference 
in their physical equipment; and when, as 
sometimes happened, he stooped to arrange a 


MR. LAURIE 


77 


pillow, or lift the wheel-chair over the thresh- 
old, he did it so gently and yet in such a mat- 
ter-of-fact manner that one scarcely noticed it. 
They were simply eager, alert, bubbling, in- 
terested boys together, and as the effect of the 
friendship showed itself in Laurie’s shining 
eyes, all the Fernalds encouraged it. 

“ Why, that young Turner is doing Laurie 
more good than a dozen doctors!” asserted 
Grandfather Fernald. “ If he did no work on 
the farm at all, Ted would be worth his wages. 
Money can’t pay for what he has done already. 
I ’m afraid Laurie has been missing young 
friends more than we realized. He never com- 
plains and perhaps we did not suspect how 
lonely he was.” 

Mr. Clarence nodded. 

“ Older people are pretty stupid about chil- 
dren sometimes, I guess,” said he sadly. 
“ Well, he has Ted Turner now and certainly 
he is a splendid boy for him to be with. Lau- 
rie’s tutor, Mr. Hazen, likes him tremend- 
ously. What a blessing it is that Wharton 
stumbled on him and brought him up here. 
Had we searched the countryside I doubt if we 
could have found any one Laurie would have 
liked so much. He does n’t care especially for 
strangers.” 

With the Fernald’s sanction behind the 
friendship, and both Laurie’s tutor and his 
doctor urging it on, you may be sure it thrived 


78 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

vigorously. The boys were naturally com- 
panionable and now, with every barrier out of 
the way, and every fostering influence pro- 
vided, the two soon found themselves on terms 
of genuine affection. 

If Laurie went for a motor ride Saturday 
afternoon, Ted must go, too; if he had a new 
book, Ted must share it, and when he was not 
as well as usual, or it was too stormy for him 
to be carried to the shack, nothing would do 
but Ted Turner must be summoned to Pine 
Lea to brighten the dreariness of the day. 
Soon the servants came to know the newcomer 
and understand that he was a privileged per- 
son in the household. Laurie’s mother, a 
pretty Southern woman, welcomed him kindly 
and it was not long before the two were united 
in a deep and affectionate conspiracy which 
placed them on terms of the greatest intimacy. 

“ Laurie is n’t quite so well this afternoon, 
Ted,” Mrs. Fernald would say. “ Do n’t let 
him get too excited or talk too much.” Or 
sometimes it was, “ Laurie had a bad night 
last night and is dreadfully discouraged to-day. 
Do try and cheer him up.” 

Not infrequently Mr. Hazen would voice 
an appeal : 

“ I have n’t been able to coax Laurie to touch 
his French lesson this morning. Do n’t you 
want to see if you can’t get him started on it? 
He ’ll do anything for you.” 


MR. LAURIE 


79 


And when Ted did succeed in getting the 
lesson learned, and not only that but actually 
made an amusing game out of it, how grateful 
Mr. Hazen was! 

For with all his sweetness Laurie Fernald 
had a stubborn streak in his nature which the 
volume of attention he had received had only 
served to accentuate. He was not really 
spoiled but there were times when he would 
do as he pleased, whether or no; and when 
such a mood came to the surface, no one but 
Ted Turner seemed to have any power against 
it. Therefore, when it occasionally chanced 
that Laurie refused to see the doctor, or would 
not take his medicine, or insisted on getting 
up when told to lie in bed, Ted was made an 
ally and urged to promote the thing that made 
for the invalid’s health and well-being. 

After being admitted into the family circle 
on such confidential terms, it followed that ab- 
solute equality was accorded Ted and he came 
and went freely, both at Aldercliffe and Pine 
Lea. He read with Laurie, lunched with him, 
followed his lessons ; and listened to his plans, 
his pleasures, and his disappointments. Per- 
haps, too, Laurie Fernald liked and respected 
him the more that he had duties to perform 
and therefore was not always free to come at 
his beck and call as did everybody else. 

“ I shan’t be able to get round to see you 
to-day, old chap,” Ted would explain over the 


8o TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


telephone. “ There is a second crop of peas 
to plant in the further lot and as Mr. Stevens 
is short of men, I ’m going to duff in and help, 
even if it is n’t my job. Of course I want to do 
my bit when they are in a pinch. I ’ll see you 
to-morrow.” 

And although Laurie grumbled a good deal, 
he recognized the present need, and becoming 
interested in the matter in spite of himself, 
wished to hear the following day all about 
the planting. That he should inquire greatly 
delighted both his father and his grandfather 
who had always been anxious that he should 
come into touch with the management of the 
estates. Often they had tried to talk to him 
of crops and gardens, plowing and planting, 
but to the subject the heir had lent merely a 
deaf ear. Now with Ted Turner’s advent had 
come a new influence, the testimony of one who 
was practically interested in agricultural 
problems and thought farming anything but 
dull. The boy was genuinely eager that the 
work of the men should be a success and there- 
fore when he hoped for fair weather for the 
haying and it seemed to make a real difference 
to him whether it was pleasant or not, how 
could Laurie help being eager that it should 
not rain until the fields were mowed and the 
crop garnered into the great barns? Or when 
Ted was worrying about the pests that invaded 
the garden, one would n’t have been a true 


MR. LAURIE 8 1 

friend not to ask how the warfare was pro- 
gressing. 

Before Laurie knew it, he had learned much 
about the affairs of the estates and had become 
awake to the obstacles good farmers encounter 
in their strife with soil and weather condi- 
tions. As a result his outlook broadened, he 
became less introspective and more alive to the 
concerns of those about him; and he gained a 
new respect for his father’s and grandfather’s 
employees. One had much less time to be de- 
pressed and discouraged when one had so many 
things to think of. 

Sometimes Ted brought in seeds and showed 
them; and afterward a slender plant that had 
sprouted; and then Mr. Hazen would join 
in and tell the two boys of other plants, — 
strange ones that grew in novel ways. Or per- 
haps the talk led to the chemicals the garden- 
ers were mixing with the soil and wandered 
off into science. Every topic seemed to reach 
so far and led into such fascinating mazes of 
knowledge! What a surprising place the 
world was! 

Of course, had the Fernalds so desired they 
could have relieved Ted of all his farming 
duties, and indeed they were sorely tempted 
at times to do so ; but when they saw how much 
better it was to keep the boy’s visits a novelty 
instead of making of them a commonplace 
event, and sensed how much knowledge he was 


82 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


bringing into the invalid’s room, they decided 
to let matters progress as they were going. 
They did, however, arrange occasional holi- 
days for the lad and many a jolly outing did 
Ted have in consequence. Had they displayed 
less wisdom they might have wrecked the 
friendship altogether. As it was they strength- 
ened it daily and the little shack among the 
pines became to both Ted and to Laurie the 
most loved spot in the world. Frequently 
the servants from Pine Lea surprised the boys 
by bringing them their luncheon there; and 
sometimes Mrs. Fernald herself came hither 
with her tea-basket, and the entire family sat 
about before the great stone fireplace and en- 
joyed a picnic supper. 

It was after one of these camping teas that 
Mr. Clarence Fernald bought for Laurie a 
comfortable Adirondack canoe luxuriously 
fitted up with cushions. The stream before 
the boathouse was broad and contained little 
or no current except down toward Pine Lea, 
where it narrowed into rapids that swept over 
the dam at Freeman’s Falls. Therefore if one 
kept along the edges of the upper part of the 
river, there was no danger and the canoe af- 
forded a delightful recreation. Both the elder 
Fernalds and Mr. Hazen rowed well and Ted 
pulled an exceptionally strong oar for a boy 
of his years. Hence they took turns at pro- 
pelling the boat and soon Laurie was as much 


MR. LAURIE 83 

at home on the pillows in the stern as he was 
in his wheel-chair. 

He greatly enjoyed the smooth, jarless mo- 
tion of the craft; and often, even when it was 
anchored at the float, he liked to be lifted into 
it and lie there rocking with the wash of the 
river. It made a change which he declared 
rested him, and it was through this simple and 
apparently harmless pleasure that a terrible 
catastrophe took place. 

On a fine warm afternoon Mr. Hazen and 
Laurie went over to the shack to meet Ted who 
usually returned from work shortly after four 
o’clock. The door of the little camp was wide 
open when they arrived but their host was 
nowhere to be seen. This circumstance did 
not trouble them, however, for on the days 
when Laurie was expected Ted always left the 
boathouse unlocked. What did disconcert 
them and njake Laurie impatient was to dis- 
cover that through some error in reckoning 
they were almost an hour too early. 

“ Our clocks must have been ahead of time,” 
fretted the boy. “ We shall have to hang 
round here the deuce of a while.” 

“ Would n’t you like me to wheel you back 
through the grove?” questioned the tutor. 

“ Oh, there ’s no use in that. Suppose you 
get out the pillows and help me into the boat. 
I ’ll lie there a while and rest.” 

“ All right.” 


84 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


With a ready smile Mr. Hazen plunged into 
the shack and soon returned laden with the 
crimson cushions, which he arranged in the 
stern of the canoe with greatest care. After- 
ward he picked Laurie up in his arms as if he 
had been a feather and carried him to the boat. 

“ How ’s that? ” he asked, when the invalid 
was settled. 

“Fine! Great, thanks! You’re a wonder 
with pillows, Mr. Hazen ; you always get them 
just right,” replied the lad. “ Now if I only 
had my book — ” 

“ I could go and get it.” 

“ Oh, no. Do n’t bother. Ted will be here 
before long, won’t he? What time is it? ” 

“ About half-past three.” 

“Only half-past three! Great Scott! I 
thought it must be nearly four by this time. 
Then I have quite a while to wait, don’t I? 
I do n’t see why you got me over here so early.” 

“ I do n’t either,” returned Mr. Hazen 
pleasantly. “ I ’m afraid my watch must have 
been wrong.” 

Laurie moved restlessly on the pillows. He 
had passed a wretched night and was worn 
and nervous in consequence. 

“ I guess perhaps you ’d better run back to 
the house for my book,” remarked he presently. 
“ I shall be having a fit of the blues if I have 
to hang round here so long with nothing to 
do.” 


MR. LAURIE 85 

“ I ’m perfectly willing to go back,” Mr. 
Hazen said. “ But are you sure — ” 

“ Oh, I ’m all right,” cut in the boy sharply. 
“ I guess I can sit in a boat by myself for a little 
while.” 

“ Still, I ’m not certain that I ought to — ” 

“ Leave me? Nonsense! What do you 
think I am, Hazen? A baby? What on 
earth is going to happen to me, I ’d like to 
know? ” 

“ Nevertheless I do n’t like to — ” 

“ Oh, do stop arguing. It makes me tired. 
Cut along and get the book, can’t you? Why 
waste all this time fussing? ” burst out the in- 
valid fretfully. “ How am I ever going to get 
well, or think I am well, if you keep reminding 
me every minute that I am a helpless wreck? 
It is enough to discourage anybody. Why 
can’t you treat me like other people? If you 
chose to sit in a boat alone for half an hour no- 
body ’d throw a fit. Why can’t I? ” 

“ I suppose you can,” retorted the tutor un- 
willingly. “ Only you know we never do — ” 
“ Leave me? Do n’t I know it? The way 
people tag at my heels drives me almost crazy 
sometimes. You would n’t like to have some 
one dogging your footsteps from morning until 
night, would you? ” 

“ I ’m afraid I should n’t,” admitted Mr. 
Hazen. 

For an interval Laurie was silent; then he 


86 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


glanced up with one of his swift, appealing 
smiles. 

“There, there, Mr. Hazen!” he said with 
winning sincerity. “ Forgive me. I did n’t 
mean to be cross. I do get so fiendishly im- 
patient sometimes. How you can keep on 
being so kind to me I do n’t see. Do please go 
and get the book, like a good chap. It ’s on 
the chair in my room or else on the library 
table. You’ll find it somewhere. 4 Treasure 
Island,’ you know. I had to leave it in the 
middle of a most exciting chapter and I am 
crazy to know how it came out.” 

Reluctantly Mr. Hazen moved away. It 
was very hard to resist Laurie Fernald when 
he was in his present mood ; besides, the young 
tutor was genuinely fond of his charge and 
would far rather gratify his wishes than refuse 
him anything. Therefore he hurried off 
through the grove, resolving to return as fast 
as ever he could. 

In the meantime Laurie threw his head back 
on the pillows and looked up at the sky. How 
blue it was and how lazily the clouds drifted 
by! Was any spot on earth so still as this? 
Why, you could not hear a sound ! He yawned 
and closed his eyes, the fatigue of his sleepless 
night overcoming him. Soon he was lost in 
dreams. 

He never could tell just what it was that 


MR. LAURIE 


87 


aroused him; perhaps it was a premonition of 
danger, perhaps the rocking of the boat. At 
any rate he was suddenly broad awake to find 
himself drifting out into the middle of the 
stream. In some way the boat must have be- 
come unfastened and the rising breeze carried 
it away from shore. Not that it mattered very 
much now. The thing that was of consequence 
was that he was helplessly drifting down the 
river with no means of staying his progress. 
Soon he would be caught in the swirl of the 
current and then there would be no help for 
him. What was he to do? 

Must he lie there and be borne along until 
he was at last carried over the dam at his 
father’s mills? 

He saw no escape from such a fate! There 
was not a soul in sight. The banks of the river 
were entirely deserted, for the workmen were 
far away, toiling in the fields and gardens, and 
they could not hear him even were he to shout 
his loudest. As for Mr. Hazen, he was prob- 
ably still at Pine Lea searching for the book 
and would n’t be back for some time. 

The boy’s heart sank and he quivered with 
fear. Must he be drowned there all alone? 
Was there no one to aid him? 

Thoroughly terrified, he began to scream. 
But his screams only reechoed from the silent 
river banks. No one heard and no one came. 

He was in the current of the stream now and 


88 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


moving rapidly along. Faster and faster he 
went. Yes, he was going to be swept on to 
Freeman’s Falls, going to be carried over the 
dam and submerged beneath that hideous roar 
of water that foamed down on the jagged rocks 
in a boiling torrent of noise and spray. No- 
body would know his plight until the catas- 
trophe was over; and even should any of the 
mill hands catch sight of his frail craft as it 
sped past it would be too late for them to help 
him. Before a boat could be launched and 
rescuers summoned he would be over the 
falls. 

Yes, he was going to die, to die! 

Again he screamed, this time less with a 
thought of calling for help than as a protest 
against the fate awaiting him. To his surprise 
he heard an answering shout and a second later 
saw Ted Turner dash through the pines, pause 
on the shore, and scan the stream. Another 
instant and the boy had thrown off his coat 
and shoes and was in the water, swimming 
toward the boat with quick, overhand strokes. 

“ Keep perfectly still, Laurie! ” he panted. 
“ You ’re all right. Just do n’t get fussed.” 

Yet cheering as were the words, they could 
not conceal the fact that Ted was frightened, 
terribly frightened. 

The canoe gained headway with the increas- 
ing current. It seemed now to leap along. 
And in just the proportion that its progress 



He heard an answering shout and a second later saw 
Ted Turner dash through the pines. Page 88. 




MR. LAURIE 


was accelerated, the speed of the pursuer les- 
sened. It seemed as if Ted would never over- 
take his prize. How they raced one another, 
the bobbing craft and the breathless boy! Ted 
Turner was a strong swimmer but the canoe 
with its solitary occupant was so light that it 
shot over the surface of the water like a 
feather. 

Was the contest to be a losing one, after all? 

Laurie, looking back at the wake of the boat, 
saw Ted’s arm move slower and slower and 
suddenly a wave of realization of the other’s 
danger came upon him. They might both be 
drowned, — two of them instead of one! 

“ Give it up, old man! ” he called bravely. 
“Don’t try any more. You may go down 
yourself and I should have to die with that 
misery on my soul. You ’ve done your best. 
It’s all right. Just let me go! I’m not 
afraid.” 

There was no answer from the swimmer but 
he did not stop. On the contrary, he kept stub- 
bornly on, plowing with mechanical persist- 
ence through the water. Then at length he, 
too, was in the current and was gaining surely 
and speedily. Presently he was only a length 
away from the boat — he was nearer — nearer ! 
His arm touched the stern and Laurie Fernald 
caught his hand in a firm grip. There he 
hung, breathing heavily. 

“ I ’ve simply got to stop a second or two 


9° 


TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


and get my wind,” said he. “ Then we’ 11 
start back.” 

“ Ted!” 

“ There are no oars, of course, but I can tie 
the rope around my body or perhaps catch it 
between my teeth. The canoe is n’t heavy, you 
know. After we get out of the current and into 
quiet water, we shall have no trouble. We can 
cut straight across the stream and the distance 
to shore won’t be great. I can do it all right.” 

And do it he did, just how neither of the lads 
could have told. 

Nevertheless he did contrive to bring the 
boat and Laurie with it to a place of safety. 
Shoulder-deep in the water stood the frenzied 
Mr. Hazen who had plunged in to meet them 
and drag them to land. They had come so far 
down the river that when the canoe was finally 
beached they found themselves opposite the 
sweeping lawns of Pine Lea. 

Ted and the tutor were chilled and ex- 
hausted and Laurie was weak from fright and 
excitement. It did not take long, you may be 
sure, to summon help and bundle the three 
into a motor car which carried them to Pine 
Lea. Once there the invalid was put to bed 
and Mr. Hazen and Ted equipped with dry 
garments. 

“ I shall get the deuce from the Fernalds for 
this! ” commented the young tutor gloomily to 
Ted. “ If it had not been for you, that boy 


MR. LAURIE 


9i 


would certainly have been drowned. Ugh! 
It makes me shudder to think of it! Had any- 
thing happened to him, I believe his father 
and grandfather would have lynched me.” 

“ Oh, Laurie is going to take all the blame,” 
replied Ted, making an attempt to comfort the 
dejected young man. “ He told me so him- 
self.” 

“ That ’s all very well,” rejoined Mr. Ha- 
zen, “ but it won’t help much. I should n’t 
have left him. I had no right to do it, no mat- 
ter what he said. I suppose the boat was n’t 
securely tied. It could n’t have been. Then 
the breeze came up. Goodness knows how the 
thing actually happened. I can’t understand 
it now. But the point is, it did. Jove! I ’m 
weak as a rag! I guess there can’t be much left 
of you, Ted.” 

“ Oh, I ’m all right now,” protested Ted. 
“ What got me was the fright of it. I did n’t 
mind the swimming, for I ’ve often crossed the 
river and back during my morning plunge. 
My work keeps me in pretty good training. 
But to-day I got panicky and my breath gave 
out. I was so afraid I would n’t overtake the 
boat before — ” 

“I know!” interrupted the tutor with a 
shiver. “ Well, it is all over now, thank God! 
You were a genuine hero and I shall tell the 
Fernalds so.” 

“ Stuff! Don’t tell them at all. What’s 


92 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


the use of harrowing their feelings all up now 
that the thing is past and done with? ” 

“ But Laurie — he is all done up and they 
will be at a loss to account for it,” objected Mr. 
Hazen. “ Besides, the servants saw us come 
ashore and have probably already spread the 
story all over the place. And anyhow, I be- 
lieve in being perfectly aboveboard. You do 
yourself, you know that. So I shall tell them 
the whole thing precisely as it happened. Af- 
terward they ’ll probably fire me.” 

“ No, they won’t! Cheer up! ” 

“ I deserve to be fired, too,” went on the 
young tutor without heeding the interruption. 
“ I ought not to have left Laurie an instant.” 

“ Perhaps not. But you won’t do it again.” 

“ You bet I won’t! ” cried Mr. Hazen boy- 
ishly. 

It subsequently proved that Mr. Hazen 
knew far more of his employers than did Ted, 
for after the story was told only the pleas of 
the young rescuer availed to soften the sentence 
imposed. 

“ He ’s almighty sorry, Mr. Fernald,” as- 
serted Ted Turner. “ Do n’t tip him out. 
Give him a second try. He won’t ever do it 
again.” 

“W — e — 11, for your sake I will,” Mr. 
Clarence said, yielding reluctantly to the 
pleading of the lad who sat opposite. “ It 
would be hard for me to deny you anything af- 


MR. LAURIE 


93 


ter what you Ve done. You Ve saved our boy’s 
life. We never shall forget it, never. But 
Hazen can thank you for his job — not me.” 

And so, as a result of Ted’s intercession, Mr. 
Hazen stayed on. In fact, as Mr. Clarence 
said, they could deny the lad nothing. It 
seemed as if the Fernalds never could do 
enough for him. Grandfather Fernald gave 
him a new watch with an illuminated face; 
and quite unknown to any one, Laurie’s father 
opened a bank account to his credit, depositing 
a substantial sum as a “ starter.” 

But the best of the whole thing was that 
Laurie tuhied to Ted with a deeper and more 
earnest affection and the foundation was laid 
for a strong and enduring friendship. 


CHAPTER VIII 


DIPLOMACY AND ITS RESULTS 

LAURIE, Ted, and Mr. Hazen were in the 
shack on a Saturday afternoon not long after 
the adventure on the river. A hard shower 
had driven them ashore and forced them to 
scramble into the shelter of the camp at the 
water’s edge. How the rain pelted down on 
the low roof! It seemed as if an army were 
bombarding the little hut! Within doors, 
however, all was tight, warm, and cosy and on 
the hearth before a roaring fire the damp coats 
were drying. 

In the meantime the two boys and the young 
tutor had dragged out some coils of wire and 
a pair of amateur telephone transmitters which 
Ted had concocted while in school and for 
amusement were trying to run from one end of 
the room to the other a miniature telephone. 
Thus far their attempts had not been successful 
and Ted was becoming impatient. 

“ We got quite a fair result at the laboratory 
after the things were adjusted,” commented 
he. “ I do n’t see why we can’t work the same 
stunt here.” 


DIPLOMACY AND ITS RESULTS 95 

“ I ’m afraid we have n’t put time enough 
into it yet,” replied Mr. Hazen. “ Do n’t you 
remember how long Alexander Graham Bell, 
the inventor of the telephone, experimented be- 
fore he got results? ” 

Laurie, who was busy shortening a bit of 
wire, glanced up with interest. 

“ I can’t for the life of me understand how 
he knew what he wanted to do, can you? ” he 
mused. “ Think of starting out to make some- 
thing perfectly new — a machine for which 
you had no pattern! I can imagine working 
out improvements on something already on the 
market. But to produce something nobody 
had ever seen before — that beats me! How 
did he ever get the idea in the first place? ” 

The tutor smiled. 

“ Mr. Bell did not set out to make a tele- 
phone, Laurie,” he answered. “ What he was 
aiming to do was to perfect a harmonic tele- 
graph, a scheme to which he had been devot- 
ing a good deal of his time. He and his father 
had studied carefully the miracle of speech — 
how the sounds of the human voice were pro- 
duced and carried to others — and as a result 
of this training Mr. Bell had become an ex- 
pert teacher of the deaf. He was also professor 
of Vocal Physiology at Boston University 
where he had courses in lip reading, or a 
system of visible speech, which his father had 
evolved. This work kept him busy through 


9 6 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

the day so whatever experimenting he did with 
sounds and their vibrations had to be done at 
night.” 

“ So he stole time for electrical work, too, 
did he? ” observed Ted. 

“ I ’m afraid that his interest in sound vibra- 
tion caused him a sorry loss of sleep,” said the 
tutor. “ But certainly his later results were 
worth the amount of rest he sacrificed. One 
of the first agencies he employed to work upon 
was a piano. Have you ever tried singing a 
note into this instrument when the sustaining 
pedal is depressed? Do it some time and 
notice what happens. You will find that the 
string tuned to the pitch of your voice will 
start vibrating while all the others remain 
quiet. You can even go farther and try the 
experiment of uttering several different 
pitches, if you want to, and the corresponding 
strings will give back your notes, each one sin- 
gling out its own particular vibration from the 
air. Now the results reached in these experi- 
ments with the piano strings meant a great deal 
more to Alexander Graham Bell than they 
would have meant to you or to me. In the first 
place, his training had given him a very acute 
ear; and in the next place, he was able to see in 
the facts presented a significance which an 
unskilled listener would not have detected. 
He found that this law of sympathetic vibra- 
tion could be repeated electrically and, if de- 


DIPLOMACY AND ITS RESULTS 97 

sired, from a distance by means of electromag- 
nets placed under a group of piano strings; 
and if afterward a circuit was made by con- 
necting the magnets with an electric battery, 
you immediately had the same singing of the 
keys and a similar searching of each for its 
own pitch.” 

“ I ’d like to try that trick some time,” ex- 
claimed Ted, leaning forward eagerly. 

“ So should I ! ” echoed Laurie. 

“ I think we could quite easily make the ex- 
periment if Laurie’s mother would not object 
to our rigging up an attachment to her piano,” 
Mr. Hazen responded. 

“ Oh, Mater would n’t mind,” answered 
Laurie confidently. “ She never minds any- 
thing I want to do.” 

“ I know she is a very long-suffering per- 
son,” smiled the tutor. “ Do you recall the 
white mice you had once, Laurie, and how 
they got loose and ran all over the house? ” 

“ And the chameleons! And the baby alli- 
gator! ” chuckled Laurie. “Mother did get 
her back up over that alligator. She did n’t 
like meeting him in the hall unexpectedly. 
But she would n’t mind a thing that was n’t 
alive.” 

“ You call an electric wire dead then,” said 
Ted with irony. 

“ Well, no — not precisely,” grinned Lau- 
rie. “ Still I ’m certain Mater would be less 


98 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

scared of it than she would of a mouse, even if 
the wire could kill her and the mouse 
could n’t.” 

“ Let ’s return to Mr. Bell and his piano 
strings,” Ted remarked, after the laughter had 
subsided. 

Mr. Hazen’s brow contracted thoughtfully 
and in his leisurely fashion he presently re- 
plied : 

“You can see, can’t you, that if an inter- 
rupter caused the electric current to be made 
and broken at intervals, the number of times 
it interrupted per second would, for example, 
correspond to the rate of vibration in one of the 
strings? In other words, that would be the 
only string that would answer. Now if you 
sang into the piano, you would have the 
rhythmic impulse that set the piano strings vi- 
brating coming directly through the air, while 
with the battery the impulse would come 
through the wire and the electromagnets in- 
stead. In each case, however, the principle 
involved would be the same.” 

“ I can see that,” said Ted quickly. “ Can’t 
you, Laurie?” 

His chum nodded. 

“ Now,” continued Mr. Hazen, “ just as it 
was possible to start two or more different 
notes of the piano echoing varying pitches, so 
it is possible to have several sets of these make- 
and-break or intermittent currents start their 


DIPLOMACY AND ITS RESULTS 99 

corresponding strings to answering. In this 
way one could send several messages at once, 
each message being toned to a different pitch. 
All that would be necessary would be to have 
differently keyed interrupters. This was the 
principle of the harmonic telegraph at which 
Mr. Bell was toiling outside the hours of his 
regular work and through which he hoped to 
make himself rich and famous. His intention 
was to break up the various sounds into the 
dots and dashes of the Morse code and make 
one wire do what it had previously taken sev- 
eral wires to perform.” 

“ It seems simple enough,” speculated 
Laurie. 

“ It was not so simple to carry out,” de- 
clared Mr. Hazen. “ Of course, as I told you, 
Mr. Bell could not give his entire time to it. 
He had his teaching both at Boston University 
and elsewhere to do. Nor was he wholly free 
at the Saunders’s, with whom he boarded at 
Salem, for he was helping the Saunders’s 
nephew, who was deaf, to study.” 

“ And in return poor Mrs. Saunders had to 
offer up her piano for experiments, I suppose,” 
Ted observed. 

“ Well, perhaps at first — but not for long,” 
was Mr. Hazen’s reply. “ Mr. Bell soon 
abandoned piano strings and in their place re- 
sorted to flat strips of springy steel, keying 
them to different pitches by varying their 


100 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


length. One end of these strips he fastened to 
a pole of an electromagnet and the other he 
extended over the other pole and left free.” 

“And the current interrupters?” queried 
Ted. 

“ Those current interrupters are the things 
which have since become known as transmit- 
ters,” explained Mr. Hazen. “Those Mr. 
Bell made all alike except that in each one of 
them were springs kept in constant vibration 
by a magnet or point of metal placed above 
each spring so that the spring would touch it 
at every vibration, thus making and breaking 
the electric current the same number of times 
per second that corresponded to the pitch of 
the piece of steel. By tuning the springs of 
the receivers to the same pitch with the trans- 
mitters and running a wire between them 
equipped with signalling keys and a battery, 
Bell reasoned he could send as many messages 
at one time as there were pitches.” 

“ Did he get it to work? ” Laurie asked. 

“ Mr. Bell did n’t, no,” replied the tutor. 
“ What sounded logical enough on paper was 
not so easy to put into practise. The idea has 
been carried out successfully, however, since 
then. But Mr. Bell unfortunately had no end 
of troubles with his scheme, and we all may 
thank these difficulties for the telephone, for 
had his harmonic telegraph gone smoothly we 
might not and probably would not have had 


DIPLOMACY AND ITS RESULTS ioi 


Bell’s other and far more important inven- 
tion.” 

“ The discovery of the telephone was a 
i happen,’ then,” Ted ventured. 

“ More or less of a happen,” was the reply. 
“ Of course, the intelligent recognition of the 
law behind it was not a happen; nor was the 
patient and persistent toil that went into the 
perfecting of the instrument a matter of 
chance. Alexander Graham Bell had the 
genius to recognize the value and significance 
of the truth on which he stumbled and turn it 
to practical purposes. Many another might 
perhaps have heard the self-same sounds that 
came to him over that reach of wire and, de- 
tecting nothing unusual in the whining vi- 
brations, have passed them by. But to Mr. 
Bell they were magic music, the sesame to a 
new country. Strangely enough, too, it was 
the good luck of a boy not much older than 
Ted to share with the discoverer the wonderful 
secret.” 

“ How?” demanded both Laurie and Ted 
in a breath. 

“ I can’t tell you that story to-day,” Mr. 
Hazen expostulated. “ It would take much too 
long. We must give over talking and put our 
minds on this telephone of our own which does 
not seem to be making any great progress. I 
begin to be afraid we have n’t the proper out- 
fit.” 


102 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


As he spoke, a shadow crossed the window 
and in another instant Mr. Clarence Fernald 
poked his head in at the door. 

“ What are you three conspirators up to?” 
inquired he. “ You look as if you were mak- 
ing bombs or some other deadly thing.” 

“ We are making a telephone, Dad, and it 
won’t work,” was Laurie’s answer. 

Mr. Fernald smiled with amusement. 

“ You seem to have plenty of wire,” he said. 
“ In fact, if I were permitted to offer a criti- 
cism, I should say you had more wire than 
anything else. How lengthy a circuit do you 
expect to cover? ” 

“ Oh, we ’re not ambitious,” Laurie replied. 
“ If we can cross the room we shall be satis- 
fied, although now that you mention it, per- 
haps it would n’t be such a bad thing if it could 
run from my room at home over here.” He 
eyed his father furtively. “ Then when I hap- 
pened to have to stay in bed I could talk to 
Ted and he could cheer me up.” 

“ So he could! ” echoed Mr. Fernald in non- 
committal fashion. 

“ It would be rather nice, too, for Mr. 
Wharton,” went on the diplomat with his 
sidelong glance still fixed on his father. “ He 
must sometimes wish he could reach Ted with- 
out bothering to send a man way over here. 
And then there are the Turners! Of course a 
telephone to the shack would give them no 


DIPLOMACY AND ITS RESULTS 103 

end of pleasure. They must miss Ted and 
often want to speak with him.” 

He waited but there was no response from 
Mr. Fernald. 

“Ted might be sick, too; or have an acci- 
dent and wish to get help and — ” 

At last the speaker was rewarded by having 
the elder man turn quickly upon him. 

“ In other words, you young scoundrel, you 
want me to install a telephone in this shack for 
the joy and delight of you two electricians who 
can’t seem to do it for yourselves,” said Mr. 
Fernald gruffly. 

“ Now however do you suppose he guessed 
it? ” exclaimed Laurie delightedly, as he 
turned with mock gravity to Ted. “ Is n’t he 
the mind reader? ” 

It was evident that Laurie Fernald thor- 
oughly understood his father and that the two 
were on terms of the greatest affection. 

“ Did I say I wanted a telephone?” he 
went on meekly. 

“ You said everything else,” was the grim 
retort. 

“ Did I? Well, well! ” commented the boy 
mischievously. “ I need n’t have taken so 
much trouble after all, need I? But every 
one is n’t such a Sherlock Holmes as you are, 
Dad.” 

Mr. Fernald’s scowl vanished and he 
laughed. 


104 TED and the telephone 


“What a young wheedler you are!” ob- 
served he, playfully rumpling up his son’s fair 
hair. “ You could coax every cent I have away 
from me if I did not lock my money up in the 
bank. I really think, though, that a telephone 
here in the hut would be an excellent idea. 
But what I do n’t see is why you do n’t do the 
job yourselves.” 

“ Oh, we could do the work all right if 
there was n’t danger of our inf ringing the pat- 
ent of the telephone company,” was Laurie’s 
impish reply. “ If we should get into a lawsuit 
there would be no end of trouble, you know. 
I guess we ’d much better have the thing in- 
stalled in the regular way.” 

“ I guess so too! ” came from his father. 

“ You ’ll really have it put in, Dad? ” cried 
Laurie. 

“ Sure! ” 

“ That will be bully, corking! ” Laurie de- 
clared. “ You ’re mighty good, Dad.” 

“Pooh! Nonsense!” his father protested, 
as he shot a quick glance of tenderness toward 
the boy. “ A telephone over here will be a 
useful thing for us all. I may want to call Ted 
up myself sometimes. We never can tell when 
an emergency may arise.” 

Within the following week the telephone 
was in place and although Ted had not minded 
his seclusion, or thought he had not, he sud- 
denly found that the instrument gave him a 


DIPLOMACY AND ITS RESULTS 105 


very comfortable sense of nearness to his fam- 
ily and to the household at Pine Lea. He and 
Laurie chattered like magpies over the wire 
and were far worse, Mrs. Fernald asserted, 
than any two gossipy boarding-school girls. 
Moreover, Ted was now able to speak each day 
with his father at the Fernald shipping rooms 
and by this means keep in closer touch with 
his family. As for Mr. Wharton, he mar- 
velled that a telephone to the shack had not 
been put in at the outset. 

“ It is not a luxury,” he insisted. u It ’s a 
necessity! An indispensable part of the farm 
equipment! ” 

Certainly in the days to come it proved its 
worth ! 


CHAPTER IX 


THE STORY OF THE FIRST TELEPHONE 

“ I AM going down to Freeman’s Falls this 
afternoon to get some rubber tape,” Ted re- 
marked to Laurie, as the two boys and the 
tutor were eating a picnic lunch in Ted’s cabin 
one Saturday. 

“ Oh, make somebody else do your errand 
and stay here,” Laurie begged. “ Anybody 
can buy that stuff. Some of the men must be 
going to the Falls. Ask Wharton to make 
them do your shopping.” 

“ Perhaps Ted had other things to attend 
to,” ventured Mr. Hazen. 

“ No, I had n’t,” was the prompt reply. 

“ In that case I am sure any of the men 
would be glad to get whatever you please,” the 
tutor declared. 

“ Save your energy, old man,” put in Laurie. 
“ Electrical supplies are easy enough to buy 
when you know what you want.” 

“They are now,” Mr. Hazen remarked, 
with a quiet smile, “ but they have not always 
been. In fact, it was not so very long ago that 
it was almost impossible to purchase either 
books on electricity or electrical stuff of any 


STORY OF FIRST TELEPHONE 107 

sort. People’s knowledge of such matters was 
so scanty that little was written about them; 
and as for shops of this type — why, they were 
practically unknown.” 

“ Where did persons get what they 
wanted? ” asked Ted with surprise. 

“Nobody wanted electrical materials,” 
laughed Mr. Hazen. “There was no call for 
them. Even had the shops supplied them, no- 
body would have known what to do with 
them.” 

“ But there must have been some who 
would,” the boy persisted. “ Where, for ex- 
ample, did Mr. Bell get his things?” 

“ Practically all Mr. Bell’s work was done 
at a little shop on Court Street, Boston,” an- 
swered Mr. Hazen. “ This shop, however, 
was nothing like the electrical supply shops 
we have now. Had Alexander Graham Bell 
entered its doors and asked, for instance, for a 
telephone transmitter, he would have found 
no such thing in stock. On the contrary, the 
shop consisted of a number of benches where 
men or boys experimented or made crude elec- 
trical contrivances that had previously been 
ordered by customers. The shop was owned 
by Charles Williams, a clever mechanical 
man, who was deeply interested in electrical 
problems of all sorts. In a tiny showcase in 
the front part of the store were displayed 
what few textbooks on electricity he had been 


io8 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


able to gather together and these he allowed 
the men in his employ to read at lunch time 
and to use freely in connection with their work. 
He was a person greatly beloved by those asso- 
ciated with him and he had the rare wisdom to 
leave every man he employed unhampered, 
thereby making individual initiative the law 
of his business.” 

The tutor paused, then noticing that both 
the boys were listening intently, he continued : 

“ If a man had an idea that had been care- 
fully thought out, he was given free rein to 
execute it. Tom Watson, one of the boys at 
the shop, constructed a miniature electric en- 
gine, and although the feat took both time and 
material, there was no quarrel because of that. 
The place was literally a workshop, and so 
long as there were no drones in it and the men 
toiled intelligently, Mr. Williams had no fault 
to find. You can imagine what valuable train- 
ing such a practical environment furnished. 
Nobody nagged at the men, nobody drove 
them on. Each of the thirty or forty em- 
ployees pegged away at his particular task, 
either doing work for a specific customer or 
trying to perfect some notion of his own. If 
you were a person of ideas, it was an ideal 
conservatory in which to foster them.” 

“ Gee! I ’d have liked the chance to work 
in a place like that! ” Ted sighed. 

“ It would not have been a bad starter, I 


STORY OF FIRST TELEPHONE 


109 


assure you,” agreed Mr. Hazen. “At that 
time there were, as I told you, few such shops 
in the country; and this one, simple and crude 
as it was, was one of the largest. There was 
another in Chicago which was bigger and per- 
haps more perfectly organized ; but Williams’s 
shop was about as good as any and certainly 
gave its men an excellent all-round education in 
electrical matters. Many of them went out 
later and became leaders in the rapidly grow- 
ing world of science and these few historic 
little shops thus became the ancestors of our 
vast electrical plants.” 

“ It seems funny to think it all started from 
such small beginnings, does n’t it,” mused 
Laurie thoughtfully. 

“ It certainly is interesting,” Mr. Hazen re- 
plied. “ And if it interests us in this far-away 
time, think what it must have meant to the 
pioneers to witness the marvels half a century 
brought forth and look back over the trail 
they had blazed. For it was a golden era of 
discovery, that period when the new-born 
power of electricity made its appearance; and 
because Williams’s shop was known to be a 
nursery for ideas, into it flocked every variety 
of dreamer. There were those who dreamed 
epoch-making dreams and eventually made 
them come true; and there were those who 
merely saw visions too impractical ever to 
become realities. To work amid this mecca 


no TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


of minds must have been not only an educa- 
tion in science but in human nature as well. 
Every sort of crank who had gathered a wild 
notion out of the blue meandered into Wil- 
liams’s shop in the hope that somebody could 
be found there who would provide either the 
money or the labor to further his particular 
scheme. 

“ Now in this shop,” went on Mr. Hazen, 
“ there was, as I told you, a young neophyte 
by the name of Thomas Watson. Tom had 
not found his niche in life. He had tried 
being a clerk, a bookkeeper, and a carpenter 
and none of these several occupations had 
seemed to fit him. Then one fortunate day he 
happened in at Williams’s shop and immedi- 
ately he knew this was the place where he be- 
longed. He was a boy of mechanical tastes 
who had a real genius for tools and machinery. 
He was given a chance to turn castings by hand 
at five dollars a week and he took the job 
eagerly.” 

“ Think how a boy would howl at working 
for that now,” Laurie exclaimed. 

“ No doubt there were boys who would have 
howled then,” answered Mr. Hazen, “ al- 
though in those days young fellows expected to 
work hard and receive little pay until they had 
learned their trade. Perhaps the youthful Mr. 
Watson had the common sense to cherish this 
creed; at any rate, there was not a lazy bone 


STORY OF FIRST TELEPHONE hi 


in his body, and as there were no such things 
to be had as automatic screw machines, he went 
vigorously to work making the castings by 
hand, trying as he did so not to blind his eyes 
with the flying splinters of metal.” 

“Then what happened?” demanded Lau- 
rie. 

“ Well, Watson stuck at his job and in the 
meantime gleaned right and left such scraps 
of practical knowledge as a boy would pick up 
in such a place. By the end of his second year 
he had had his finger in many pies and had 
worked on about every sort of electrical con- 
trivance then known: call bells, annunciators, 
galvanometers; telegraph keys, sounders, re- 
lays, registers, and printing telegraph instru- 
ments. Think what a rich experience his two 
years of apprenticeship had given him!” 

“You bet! ” ejaculated Ted appreciatively. 

“ Now as Tom Watson was not only clever 
but was willing to take infinite pains with 
whatever he set his hand to, never stinting nor 
measuring his time or strength, he became a 
great favorite with those who came to the shop 
to have different kinds of experimental appa- 
ratus made. Many of the ideas brought to 
him to be worked out came from visionaries 
who had succeeded in capturing the financial 
backing of an unwary believer and convinced 
themselves and him that here was an idea 
that was to stir the universe. But too many of 


1 12 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


these schemes, alas, proved worthless and as 
their common fate was the rubbish heap, it is 
strange that the indefatigable Thomas Watson 
did not have his faith in pioneer work entirely 
destroyed. But youth is buoyed up by per- 
petual hope; and paradoxical as it may seem, 
his enthusiasm never lagged. Each time he 
felt, with the inventor, that they might be stand- 
ing on the brink of gigantic unfoldings and he 
toiled with energy to bring something practical 
out of the chaos. And when at length it be- 
came evident beyond all question that the idea 
was never to unfold into anything practical, 
he would, with the same zealous spirit, attack 
another seer’s problem.” 

“ Did n’t he ever meet any successful inven- 
tors?” questioned Ted. 

“ Yes, indeed,” the tutor answered. “ Scat- 
tered among the cranks and castle builders 
were several brilliant, solid-headed men. 
There was Moses G. Farmer, for example, one 
of the foremost electricians of that time, who 
had many an excellent and workable idea 
and who taught young Watson no end of valu- 
able lessons. Then one day into the workshop 
came Alexander Graham Bell. In his hand 
he carried a mechanical contrivance Watson 
had previously made for him and on espying 
Tom in the distance he made a direct line for 
the workman’s bench. After explaining that 
the device did not do the thing he was desirous 


STORY OF FIRST TELEPHONE 113 

it should, he told Watson that it was the re- 
ceiver and transmitter of his Harmonic Tele- 
graph.” 

“ And that was the beginning of Mr. Wat- 
son’s work with Mr. Bell? ” asked Ted breath- 
lessly. 

“ Yes, that was the real beginning.” 

“ Think of working with a man like that! ” 
the boy cried with sparkling eyes. “ It must 
have been tremendously interesting.” 

“ It was interesting,” responded Mr. Hazen, 
“ but nevertheless much of the time it must 
have been inexpressibly tedious work. A 
young man less patient and persistent than 
Watson would probably have tired of the 
task. Just why he did not lose his courage 
through the six years of struggle that followed 
I do not understand. For how was he to know 
but that this idea would eventually prove as 
hopeless and unprofitable as had so many 
others to which he had devoted his energy? 
Beyond Mr. Bell’s own magnetic personality 
there was only slender foundation for his faith 
for in spite of the efforts of both men the har- 
monic telegraph failed to take form. Instead, 
like a tantalizing sprite, it danced before them, 
always beckoning, never materializing. In 
theory it was perfectly consistent but in prac- 
tise it could not be coaxed into behaving as it 
logically should. Had it but been possible for 
those working on it to realize that beyond their 


1 1 4 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

temporary failure lay a success glorious past 
all belief, think what the knowledge would 
have meant. But to always be following the 
gleam and never overtaking it, ah, that might 
well have discouraged prophets of stouter 
heart! ” 

“ Were these transmitters and receivers 
made from electromagnets and strips of flat 
steel, as you told us the other day? ” asked Ted. 

“Yes, their essential parts comprised just 
those elements — an electromagnet and a scrap 
of flattened clock spring which, as I have ex- 
plained, was clamped by one end to the pole of 
the magnet and left free at the other to vibrate 
over the opposite pole. In addition the trans- 
mitter had make-and-break points such as an 
ordinary telephone bell has, and when these 
came in contact with the current, the springs 
inside continually gave out a sort of wail keyed 
to correspond with the pitch of the spring. 
As Mr. Bell had six of these instruments tuned 
to as many different pitches — and six receiv- 
ers to answer them — you may picture to your- 
self the hideousness of the sounds amid which 
the experimenters labored.” 

“ I suppose when each transmitter sent out 
its particular whine its own similarly tuned 
receiver spring would wriggle in response,” 
Laurie said. 

“ Exactly so.” 

“ There must have been lovely music when 


STORY OF FIRST TELEPHONE 115 

all six of them began to sing! ” laughed Ted. 

“ Mr. Watson wrote once that it was as if 
all the miseries of the world were concentrated 
in that workroom, and I can imagine it being 
true,” answered the tutor. “ Well, young 
Watson certainly did all he could to make the 
harmonic telegraph a reality. He made the 
receivers and transmitters exactly as Mr. Bell 
requested ; but on testing them out, great was 
the surprise of the inventor to find that his 
idea, so feasible in theory, refused to work. 
Nevertheless, his faith was not shaken. He 
insisted on trying to discover the flaw in his 
logic and correct it, and as Watson had now 
completed some work that he had been doing 
for Moses Farmer, the two began a series of 
experiments that lasted all winter.” 

“ Jove! ” ejaculated Laurie. 

“ Marvels of science are not born in a mo- 
ment,” answered Mr. Hazen. “Yet I do 
not wonder that you gasp, for think of what it 
must have meant to toil for weeks and months 
at those wailing instruments! It is a miracle 
the men did not go mad. They were not al- 
ways able to work together for Mr. Bell had 
his living to earn and therefore was compelled 
to devote a good measure of his time to his 
college classes and his deaf pupils. In conse- 
quence, he did a portion of his experimental 
work at Salem while Watson carried on his at 
the shop, fitting it in with other odd jobs that 


ii 6 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


came his way. Frequently Mr. Bell remained 
in Boston in the evening and the two worked 
at the Williams’s shop until late into the 
night.” 

“ Was n’t it lucky there were no labor unions 
in those days? ” put in Ted mischievously. 

“ Indeed it was!” responded Mr. Hazen. 
“ The shop would then have been barred and 
bolted at five o’clock, I suppose, and Alexan- 
der Graham Bell might have had a million 
bright ideas for all the good they would have 
done him. But at that golden period of our 
history, if an ambitious fellow like Watson 
wished to put in extra hours of work, the more 
slothful ones had no authority to stand over 
him with a club and say he should n’t. There- 
fore the young apprentice toiled on with Mr. 
Bell, unmolested; and Charles Williams, the 
proprietor of the shop, was perfectly willing 
he should. One evening, when the two were 
alone, Mr. Bell remarked, ‘ If I could make a 
current of electricity vary in intensity precisely 
as the air varies in density during the produc- 
tion of sound, I should be able to transmit 
speech telegraphically.’ This was his first 
allusion to the telephone but that the idea of 
such an instrument had been for some time in 
his mind was evident by the fact that he 
sketched in for Watson the kind of apparatus 
he thought necessary for such a device 
and they speculated concerning its con- 


STORY OF FIRST TELEPHONE 117 

struction. The project never went any 
farther, however, because Mr. Thomas Saun- 
ders and Mr. Gardiner Hubbard, who 
were financing Mr. Bell’s experiments, felt 
the chances of this contrivance working 
satisfactorily were too uncertain. Already 
much time and money had been spent on 
the harmonic telegraph and they argued this 
scheme should be completed before a new ven- 
ture was tried.” 

“ I suppose that point of view was quite 
justifiable,” mused Ted. “ But was n’t it a 
pity?” 

“Yes, it was,” agreed Mr. Hazen. “Yet 
here again we realize how man moves inch by 
inch, never knowing what is just around the 
turn of the road. He can only go it blindly 
and do the best he knows at the time. Natu- 
rally neither Mr. Hubbard nor Mr. Saunders 
wanted to swamp any more money until they 
had received results for what they had spent 
already; and those results, alas, were not forth- 
coming. Over and over again poor Watson 
blamed himself lest some imperceptible defect 
in his part of the work was responsible for Mr. 
Bell’s lack of success. The spring of 1875 
came and still no light glimmered on the hori- 
zon. The harmonic telegraph seemed as far 
away from completion as ever. Patiently the 
men plodded on. Then on a June day, a day 
that began even less auspiciously than had 


1 1 8 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


other days, the heavens suddenly opened and 
Alexander Graham Bell had his vision! ” 

“ What was it? ” 

“Tell us about it!” cried both boys in a 
breath. 

“ It was a warm, close afternoon in the loft 
over the Williams’s shop and the transmitters 
and receivers were whining there more dole- 
fully than usual. Several of them, sensitive 
to the weather, were out of tune, and as Mr. 
Bell had trained his ear to sounds until it was 
abnormally acute, he was tuning the springs 
of the receivers to the pitch of the transmitters, 
a service he always preferred to perform him- 
self. To do this he placed the receiver against 
his ear and called to Watson, who was in the 
adjoining room, to start the current through 
the electromagnet of the corresponding trans- 
mitter. When this was done, Mr. Bell was 
able to turn a screw and adjust the instru- 
ment to the pitch desired. Watson admits in 
a book he has himself written that he was out 
of spirits that day and feeling irritable and 
impatient. The whiners had got on his nerves, 
I fancy. One of the springs that he was trying 
to start appeared to stick and in order to force 
it to vibrate he gave it a quick snap with his 
finger. Still it would not go and he snapped 
it sharply several times. Immediately there 
was a cry from Mr. Bell who rushed into 
the hall, exclaiming, 1 What did you do 


STORY OF FIRST TELEPHONE 119 

then? Don’t change anything. Let me see.’ 

“Watson was alarmed. Had he knocked 
out the entire circuit or what had he done in 
his fit of temper? Well, there was no escape 
from confession now; no pretending he had 
not vented his nervousness on the mechanism 
before him. With honesty he told the truth 
and even illustrated his hasty action. The 
thing was simple enough. In some way the 
make-and-break points of the transmitter 
spring had become welded together so that 
even when Watson snapped the instrument the 
circuit had remained unbroken, while by 
means of the piece of magnetized steel vibrat- 
ing over the pole of the magnet an electric cur- 
rent was generated, the type of current that did 
exactly what Mr. Bell had dreamed of a cur- 
rent doing — a current of electricity that 
varied in intensity precisely as the air within 
the radius of that particular spring was vary- 
ing in density. And not only did that un- 
dulatory current pass through the wire to the 
receiver Mr. Bell was holding, but as good 
luck would have it the mechanism was such 
that it transformed that current back into a 
faint but unmistakable echo of the sound is- 
suing from the vibrating spring that generated 
it. But a fact more fortunate than all this was 
that the one man to whom the incident car- 
ried significance had the instrument at his ear 
at that particular moment. That was pure 


120 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


chance — a Heaven-sent, miraculous coinci- 
dence! But that Mr. Bell recognized the 
value and importance of that whispered echo 
that reached him over the wire and knew, 
when he heard it, that it was the embodiment 
of the idea that had been haunting him — that 
was not chance; it was genius! ” 

The room had been tensely still and now 
both boys drew a sigh of relief. 

“ How strange!” murmured Ted in an 
awed tone. 

“Yes, it was like magic, was it not?” re- 
plied the tutor. “ For the speaking telephone 
was born at that moment. Whatever practical 
work was necessary to make the invention per- 
fect (and there were many, many details to be 
solved) was done afterward. But on June 2, 
1875, telephone as Bell had dreamed it 
came into the world. That single demonstra- 
tion on that hot morning in Williams’s shop 
proved myriad facts to the inventor. One was 
that if a mechanism could transmit the many 
complex vibrations of one sound it could do 
the same for any sound, even human speech. 
He saw now that the intricate paraphernalia 
he had supposed necessary to achieve his long- 
imagined result was not to be needed, for did 
not the simple contrivance in his hand do the 
trick? The two men in the stuffy little loft 
could scarcely contain their delight. For 
hours they went on repeating the experiment 


STORY OF FIRST TELEPHONE 121 


in order to make sure they were really awake. 
They verified their discovery beyond all 
shadow of doubt. One spring and then an- 
other was tried and always the same great law 
acted with invariable precision. Heat, fa- 
tigue, even the dingy garret itself was forgot- 
ten in the flight of those busy, exultant hours. 
Before they separated that night, Alexander 
Graham Bell had given to Thomas Watson di- 
rections for making the first electric speaking 
telephone in the world!” 


CHAPTER X 


WHAT CAME AFTERWARD 

“WAS that first telephone like ours?” in- 
quired Ted later as, their lunch finished, they 
sat idly looking out at the river. 

“ Not wholly. Time has improved the first 
crude instrument,” Mr. Hazen replied. “ The 
initial principle of the telephone, however, 
has never varied from Mr. Bell’s primary idea. 
Before young Watson tumbled into bed on that 
epoch-making night, he had finished the in- 
strument Bell had asked him to have ready, 
every part of it being made by the eager as- 
sistant who probably only faintly realized the 
mammoth importance of his task. Yet 
whether he realized it or not, he had caught a 
sufficient degree of the inventor’s excitement 
to urge him forward. Over one of the receiv- 
ers, as Mr. Bell directed, he mounted a small 
drumhead of goldbeater’s skin, joined the cen- 
ter of it to the free end of the receiver spring, 
and arranged a mouthpiece to talk into. The 
plan was to force the steel spring to answer the 
vibrations of the voice and at the same time 
generate a current of electricity that should 
vary in intensity just as the air varies in density 


WHAT CAME AFTERWARD 123 

during the utterance of speech sounds. Not 
only did Watson make this instrument as speci- 
fied, but in his interest he went even farther, 
and as the rooms in the loft seemed too near 
together, the tireless young man ran a special 
wire from the attic down the two flights of 
stairs to the ground floor of the shop and ended 
it near his workbench at the rear of the build- 
ing, thus constructing the first telephone line 
in history. 

“ Then the next day Mr. Bell came to test 
out his invention and, as you can imagine, 
there was great excitement.” 

“ I hope it worked,” put in Laurie. 

“ It worked all right although at this early 
stage of the game it was hardly to be expected 
that the instrument produced was perfect. 
Nevertheless, the demonstration proved that 
the principle behind it was sound and that was 
all Mr. Bell really wanted to make sure of. 
Watson, as it chanced, got far more out of this 
initial performance than did Mr. Bell him- 
self for because of the inventor’s practical work 
in phonics the vibrations of his voice carried 
more successfully than did those of the assist- 
ant. Yet the youthful Watson was not without 
his compensations. Nature had blessed him 
with unusually acute hearing and as a result he 
could catch Bell’s tones perfectly as they came 
over the wire and could almost distinguish 
his words; but shout as he would, poor Mr. 


124 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


Bell could not hear him . This dilemma never- 
theless discouraged neither of them for Watson 
had plenty of energy and was quite willing to 
leap up the two flights of stairs and repeat 
what he had heard ; and this report greatly re- 
assured Mr. Bell, who outlined a list of other 
improvements for another telephone that 
should be ready on the following day.” 

“ I suppose they kept remodelling the tele- 
phones all the time after that, didn’t they? ” 
inquired Ted. 

“You may be sure they did,” was Mr. 
Hazen’s response. “ The harmonic telegraph 
was entirely sidetracked and the interest of 
both men turned into this newer channel. Mr. 
Bell, in the meantime, was giving less and less 
energy to his teaching and more and more to 
his inventing. Before many days the two could 
talk back and forth and hear one another’s voices 
without difficulty, although ten full months 
of hard work was necessary before they were 
able to understand what was said. It was not 
until after this long stretch of patient toil that 
Watson unmistakably heard Mr. Bell say one 
day, ‘Mr. Watson , please come here , I want 
you.’ The message was a very ordinary, un- 
theatrical one for a moment so significant but 
neither of the enthusiasts heeded that. The 
thrilling fact was that the words had come 
clear-cut over the wire.” 

“ Gee! ” broke in Laurie. 


WHAT CAME AFTERWARD 125 

“ It certainly must have been a dramatic 
moment,” Mr. Hazen agreed. “ Mr. Bell, now 
convinced beyond all doubt of the value of his 
idea, hired two rooms at a cheap boarding- 
house situated at Number 5 Exeter Place, Bos- 
ton. In one of these he slept and in the other 
he equipped a laboratory. Watson connected 
these rooms by a wire and afterward all Mr. 
Bell’s experimenting was done here instead of 
at the Williams’s shop. It was at the Exeter 
Place rooms that this first wonderful message 
came to Watson’s ears. From this period on 
the telephone took rapid strides forward. By 
the summer of 1876, it had been improved un- 
til a simple sentence was understandable if 
carefully repeated three or four times.” 

“Repeated three or four times!” gasped 
Laurie in dismay. 

The tutor smiled at the boy’s incredulous- 
ness. 

“ You forget we are not dealing with a fin- 
ished product,” said he gently. “ I am a little 
afraid you would have been less patient with 
the imperfections of an infant invention than 
were Bell and Watson.” 

“ I know I should,” was the honest retort. 

“ The telephone was a very delicate instru- 
ment to perfect,” explained Mr. Hazen. “ Al- 
ways remember that. An inventor must not 
only be a man who has unshaken faith in his 
idea but he must also have the courage to cling 


126 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


stubbornly to his belief through every sort of 
mechanical vicissitude. This Mr. Bell did. 
June of 1876 was the year of the great Centen- 
nial at Philadelphia, the year that marked the 
first century of our country’s progress. As the 
exhibition was to be one symbolic of our na- 
tional development in every line, Mr. Bell 
decided to show his telephone there; to this 
end he set Watson, who was still at the Wil- 
liams’s shop, to making exhibition telephones 
of the two varieties they had thus far worked 
out.” 

“ I ’ll bet Watson was almighty proud of his • 
job,” Ted interrupted. 

“ I fancy he was and certainly he had a 
right to be,” answered Mr. Hazen. “ I have 
always been glad, too, that it fell to his lot to 
have this honor; for he had worked long and 
faithfully, and if there were glory to be had, 
he should share it. To his unflagging zeal 
and intelligence Mr. Bell owed a great deal. 
Few men could so whole-heartedly have ef- 
faced their own personality and thrown them- 
selves with such zest into the success of another 
as did Thomas Watson.” 

The tutor paused. 

“ Up to this time,” he presently went on, 

“ the telephones used by Bell and Watson in 
their experiments had been very crude affairs; 
but those designed for the Centennial were 
glorified objects. Watson says that you could 


WHAT CAME AFTERWARD 127 

see your face in them. The Williams’s shop 
outdid itself and more splendid instruments 
never went forth from its doors. You can 
therefore imagine Watson’s chagrin when, af- 
ter highly commending Mr. Bell’s invention, 
Sir William Thompson added, ' This, per- 
haps, greatest marvel hitherto achieved by 
electric telegraph has been obtained by appli- 
ances of quite a homespun and rudimentary 
character ! ” 

Both Ted and Laurie joined in the laughter 
of the tutor. 

“ And now the telephone was actually 
launched? ” Ted asked. 

“Well, it was not really in clear waters,” 
Mr. Hazen replied, with a dubious shrug of 
his shoulders, “ but at least there was no 
further question as to which of his schemes 
Mr. Bell should perfect. Both Mr. Hubbard 
and Mr. Saunders, who were assisting him 
financially, agreed that for the present it must 
be the telephone; and recognizing the value of 
Watson’s services, they offered him an interest 
in Mr. Bell’s patents if he would give up his 
work at Williams’s shop and put in all his time 
on this device. Nevertheless they did not en- 
tirely abandon the harmonic telegraph for 
Bell’s success with the other invention had only 
served to strengthen their confidence in his 
ability and genius. It was also decided that 
Mr. Bell should move from Salem to Boston, 


128 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


take an additional room at the Exeter Place 
house (which would give him the entire floor 
where his laboratory was), and unhampered 
by further teaching plunge into the inventive 
career for which heaven had so richly endowed 
him and which he loved with all his heart. 
You can picture to yourselves the joy these 
decisions gave him and the eagerness with 
which he and Watson took up their labors to- 
gether. 

“ They made telephones of every imagin- 
able size in their attempts to find out whether 
there was anything that would work more satis- 
factorily than the type they now had. But 
in spite of their many experiments they came 
back to the kind of instrument with which 
they had started, discovering nothing that was 
superior to their original plan. Except that 
they compelled the transmitter to do double 
duty and act also as a receiver, the telephone 
that emerged from these many tests was prac- 
tically similar in principle to the one of to- 
day.” 

“ Had they made any long-distance trials up 
to this time? ” questioned Laurie. 

“No,” Mr. Hazen admitted. “They had 
lacked opportunity to make such tests since 
no great span of wires was accessible to them. 
But on October 9, 1876, the Walworth Manu- 
facturing Company gave them permission to 
try out their device on the Company’s private 


WHAT CAME AFTERWARD 129 

telegraph line that ran from Boston to Cam- 
bridge. The distance to be sure was only two 
miles but it might as well have been two thou- 
sand so far as the excitement of the two work- 
ers went. Their baby had never been out of 
doors. Now at last it was to take the air! 
Fancy how thrilling the prospect was! As the 
wire over which they were to make the experi- 
ment was in use during the day, they were 
forced to wait until the plant was closed for 
the night. Then Watson, with his tools and 
his telephone under his arm, went to the Cam- 
bridge office where he impatiently listened for 
Mr. Bell’s signal to come over the Morse 
sounder. When he had heard this and thereby 
made certain that Bell was at the other end of 
the line, he cut out the sounder, connected the 
telephone he had brought with him, and put 
his ear to the transmitter.” 

The hut was so still one could almost hear 
the breathing of the lads, who were listening 
intently. 

“ Go on!” Laurie said quickly. “ Tell us 
what happened.” 

“Nothing happened! ” answered the tutor. 
“ Watson listened but there was not a sound.” 

“ Great Scott! ” 

“The poor assistant was aghast,” went on 
Mr. Hazen. “ He was at a complete loss to 
understand what was the matter. Could it be 
that the contrivance which worked so prom- 


I 3 0 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

isingly in the Boston rooms would not work 
under these other conditions? Perhaps an 
electric current was too delicate a thing to 
carry sound very far. Or was it that the force 
of the vibration filtered off at each insulator 
along the line until it became too feeble to be 
heard? All these possibilities flashed into 
Watson’s mind while at his post two miles 
away from Mr. Bell he struggled to readjust 
the instrument. Then suddenly an inspira- 
tion came to his alert brain. Might there not 
be another Morse sounder somewhere about? 
If there were, that would account for the 
whole difficulty. Springing up, he began to 
search the room and after following the wires, 
sure enough, he traced them to a relay with a 
high resistance coil in the circuit. Feverishly 
he cut this out and rushed back to his tele- 
phone. Plainly over the wire came Bell’s 
voice, ‘Ahoy! Ahoy! } For a few seconds 
both of them were too delighted to say much 
of anything else. Then they sobered down 
and began this first long-distance conversation. 
Now one of the objections Mr. Bell had con- 
stantly been forced to meet from the skeptical 
public was that while the telegraph delivered 
messages that were of unchallenged accuracy 
telephone conversations were liable to errors of 
misunderstanding. One could not therefore 
rely so completely on the trustworthiness of 
the latter as on that of the former. To refute 


WHAT CAME AFTERWARD 13 1 

this charge Mr. Bell had insisted that both 
he and Watson carefully write out whatever 
they heard that the two records might after- 
ward be compared and verified. ‘ That is/ 
Mr. Bell had added with the flicker of a smile, 
' if we succeed in talking at all! ’ Well, they 
did succeed, as you have heard. At first they 
held only a stilted dialogue and conscientiously 
jotted it down ; but afterward their exuberance 
got the better of them and in sheer joy they 
chattered away like magpies until long past 
midnight. Then, loath to destroy the connec- 
tion, Watson detached his telephone, replaced 
the Company’s wires, and set out for Boston. 
In the meantime Mr. Bell, who had previously 
made an arrangement with the Boston Adver- 
tiser to publish on the following morning an 
account of the experiment, together with the 
recorded conversations, had gone to the news- 
paper office to carry his material to the press. 
Hence he was not at the Exeter Place rooms 
when the jubilant Watson arrived. But the 
early morning hour did not daunt the young 
electrician; and when, after some delay, Mr. 
Bell came in, the two men rushed toward one 
another and regardless of everything else exe- 
cuted what Mr. Watson has since character- 
ized as a war dance . Certainly they were quite 
justified in their rejoicings and perhaps if 
their landlady had understood the cause of 
their exultations she might have joined in the 


i 3 2 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

dance herself. Unluckily she had only a scant 
sympathy with inventive genius and since the 
victory celebration not only aroused her, but 
also wakened most of her boarders from their 
slumbers, her ire was great and the next morn- 
ing she informed the two men that if they 
could not be more quiet at night they would 
have to leave her house.” 

An appreciative chuckle came from the lis- 
teners. 

“ If she had known what she was sheltering, 
I suppose she would have been proud as a pea- 
cock and promptly told all her neighbors,” 
grinned Ted. 

“Undoubtedly! But she did not know, 
poor soul! ” returned Mr. Hazen. 

“ After this Mr. Bell and Mr. Watson must 
have shot ahead by leaps and bounds,” com- 
mented Laurie. 

“ There is no denying that that two-mile test 
did give them both courage and assurance,” 
responded the tutor. “ They got chances to try 
out the invention on longer telegraph wires; 
and in spite of the fact that no such thing as 
hard-drawn copper wire was in existence they 
managed to get results even over rusty wires 
with their unsoldered joinings. Through such 
experiments an increasingly wider circle of 
outside persons heard of the telephone and the 
marvel began to attract greater attention. Mr. 
BelPs modest little laboratory became the 


WHAT CAME AFTERWARD 133 

mecca of scientists and visitors of every im- 
aginable type. Moses G. Farmer, well known 
in the electrical world, came to view the won- 
der and confessed to Mr. Bell that more than 
once he had lingered on the threshold of the 
same mighty discovery but had never been 
able to step across it into success. It amused 
both Mr. Bell and Mr. Watson to see how 
embarrassed persons were when allowed to 
talk over the wire. Standing up and speaking 
into a box has long since become too much a 
matter of course with us to appear ridiculous; 
but those experiencing the novelty for the first 
time were so overwhelmed by self-conscious- 
ness that they could think of nothing to say. 
One day when Mr. Watson called from his end 
of the line, 4 How do you do? ’ a dignified law- 
yer who was trying the instrument answered 
with a foolish giggle, 4 Rig-a-jig-jig and away 
we go!’ The psychological reaction was too 
much for many a well-poised individual and 
I do not wonder it was, do you? ” 

44 It must have been almost as good as a 
vaudeville show to watch the people,” com- 
mented Ted. 

44 Better! Lots better! ” echoed Laurie. 

44 In April, 1877, the first out-of-door tele- 
phone line running on its own private wires 
was installed in the shop of Charles Williams 
at Number 109 Court Street and carried from 
there out to his house at Somerville. Quite a 


i 3 4 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

little ceremony marked the event. Both Mr. 
Bell and Mr. Watson attended the christening 
and the papers chronicled the circumstance 
in bold headlines the following day. Immedi- 
ately patrons who wanted telephones began to 
pop up right and left like so many mushrooms. 
But alas, where was the money to come from 
that should enable Mr. Bell and his associates 
to branch out and grasp the opportunities that 
now beckoned them? The inventor’s own re- 
sources were at a low ebb; Watson, like many 
another young man, had more brains than for- 
tune ; and neither Mr. Hubbard nor Mr. Saun- 
ders felt they could provide the necessary cap- 
ital. Already the Western Union had refused 
Mr. Hubbard’s offer to sell all Mr. Bell’s pat- 
ents for one hundred thousand dollars, the 
Company feeling that the price asked was 
much too high. Two years later, however, 
they would willingly have paid twenty-five 
million dollars for the privilege they had so 
summarily scorned. What was to be done? 
Money must be secured for without it all 
further progress was at a standstill. Was suc- 
cess to be sacrificed now that the goal was well 
within sight? And must the telephone be shut 
away from the public and never take its place 
of service in the great world? Why, if a thing 
was not to be used it might almost as well never 
have been invented! The spirits of the tele- 
phone pioneers sank lower and lower. The 


WHAT CAME AFTERWARD 135 

only way to raise money seemed to be to sell 
the telephone instruments outright and this 
Mr. Bell, who desired simply to lease them, 
was unwilling to do. Then an avenue of es- 
cape from this dilemma presented itself to 
him.” 

“ What was it? ” asked Laurie. 

“ He would give lectures, accompanying 
them with practical demonstrations of the tele- 
phone. This would bring in money and banish 
for a time, at least, the possibility of having to 
sell instead of rent telephones. The plan suc- 
ceeded admirably. The first lecture was given 
at Salem where, because of Mr. Bell’s previous 
residence and many friends, a large audience 
packed the hall. Then Boston desired to know 
more of the invention and an appeal for a lec- 
ture signed by Longfellow, Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, and other distinguished citizens was 
forwarded to Mr. Bell. The Boston lectures 
were followed by others in New York, Provi- 
dence, and the principal cities throughout 
New England.” 

“ It seems a shame Mr. Bell should have had 
to take his time to do that, does n’t it? ” mused 
Ted. “ How did they manage the lectures? ” 

“ The lectures had a checkered existence,” 
smiled Mr. Hazen. “ Many very amusing 
incidents centered about them. Were I to talk 
until doomsday I could not begin to tell you 
the multitudinous adventures Mr. Bell and 


1 36 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

Mr. Watson had during their platform career; 
for although Mr. Watson was never really be- 
fore the footlights as Mr. Bell was, he was an 
indispensable part of the show, — the power 
behind the scenes, the man at the other end of 
the wire, who furnished the lecture hall with 
such stunts as would not only convince an audi- 
ence but also entertain them. It was a dull, 
thankless position, perhaps, to be so far re- 
moved from the excitement and glamor, to be 
always playing or singing into a little wooden 
box and never catching a glimpse of the fun 
that was going on at the other end of the line ; 
but since Mr. Watson was a rather shy person 
it is possible he was quite as well pleased. 
After all, it was Mr. Bell whom everybody 
wanted to see and of course Mr. Watson un- 
derstood this. Therefore he was quite content 
to act his modest role and not only gather 
together at his end of the wire cornet soloists, 
electric organs, brass bands, or whatever star- 
tling novelties the occasion demanded, but talk 
or sing himself. The shyest of men can some- 
times out-Herod Herod if not obliged to face 
their listeners in person. As Watson had 
spoken so much over the telephone, he was 
thoroughly accustomed to it and played the 
parts assigned him far better than more gifted 
but less practically trained soloists did. It al- 
ways amused him intensely after he had bel- 
lowed Pull for the Shore, Hold the Fort or 


WHAT CAME AFTERWARD 


137 


Yankee Doodle into the transmitter to hear the 
applause that followed his efforts. Probably 
singing before a large company was about the 
last thing Tom Watson expected his electrical 
career would lead him into. Had he been told 
that such a fate awaited him, he would doubt- 
less have jeered at the prophecy. But here he 
was, singing away with all his lung power, be- 
fore a great hall full of people and not mind- 
ing it in the least; nay, I rather think he may 
have enjoyed it. Once, desiring to give a finer 
touch than usual to the entertainment, Mr. 
Bell hired a professional singer; but this solo- 
ist had never used a telephone and although he 
possessed the art of singing he was not able 
to get it across the wire. No one in the lec- 
ture hall could hear him. Mr. Bell promptly 
summoned Watson (who was doubtless con- 
gratulating himself on being off duty) to 
render Hold the Fort in his customary lusty 
fashion. After this Mr. Watson became the 
star soloist and no more singers were en- 
gaged.” 

A ripple of amusement passed over the faces 
of the lads listening. 

“ Ironically enough, as Mr. Watson’s work 
kept him always in the background furnishing 
the features of these entertainments, he never 
himself heard Mr. Bell lecture. He says, 
however, that the great inventor was a very 
polished, magnetic speaker who never failed 


:i 3 8 ted and the telephone 

to secure and hold the attention of his hearers. 
Of course, every venture has its trials and these 
lecture tours were no exception to the general 
rule. Once, for example, the Northern Lights 
were responsible for demoralizing the current 
and spoiling a telephone demonstration at 
Lawrence; and although both Watson and a 
cornetist strained their lungs to bursting, 
neither of them could be heard at the hall. 
Then the sparks began to play over the wires 
and the show had to be called off. Neverthe- 
less such disasters occurred seldom, and for the 
most part the performances went smoothly, the 
people were delighted, and Mr. Bell increased 
not only his fame but his fortune.” 

Mr. Hazen stopped a moment. 

“ You must not for an instant suppose,” he 
resumed presently, “ that the telephone was a 
perfected product. Transmitters of sufficient 
delicacy to do away with shouting and scream- 
ing had not yet made their appearance and in 
consequence when one telephoned all the 
world knew it; it was not until the Blake trans- 
mitter came into use that a telephone conver- 
sation could be to any extent confidential. In 
its present state, the longer the range the more 
lung power was demanded; and probably had 
not this been the condition, people would have 
shouted anyway, simply from instinct. Even 
with our own delicately adjusted instruments 
we are prone to forget and commit this folly. 


WHAT CAME AFTERWARD 139 

But in the early days one was forced to uplift 
his voice at the telephone and if he had no 
voice to uplift woe betide his telephoning. 
And apropos of this matter, I recall reading 
that once, when Mr. Bell was to lecture in 
New York, he thought what a drawing card 
it would be if he could have his music and 
other features of entertainment come from 
Boston. Therefore he arranged to use the 
wires of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph 
Company and to this end he and Watson 
planned a dress rehearsal at midnight in order 
to try out the inspiration. Now it chanced 
that the same inflexible landlady ruled at 
Number 5 Exeter Place, and remembering 
his former experience, Mr. Watson felt some- 
thing must be done to stifle the shouting he 
foresaw he would be compelled to do at that 
nocturnal hour. So he gathered together all 
the blankets and rolled them into a sort of cone 
and to the small end of this he tied his tele- 
phone. Then he crept into this stuffy, breath- 
less shelter, the ancestor of our sound-proof 
telephone booth, and for nearly three hours 
shouted to Mr. Bell in New York — or tried 
to. But the experiment was not a success. He 
could be heard, it is true, but not distinctly 
enough to risk such an unsatisfactory demon- 
stration before an uninitiated audience. 
Hence the scheme was abandoned and Mr. 
Watson scrambled his things together and be- 


140 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


took himself to a point nearer the center of 
action.” 

“ It must all have been great fun, must n’t 
it? ” said Laurie thoughtfully. 

“ Great fun, no doubt, but very hard work,” 
was the tutor’s answer. “ Many a long, dis- 
couraging hour was yet to follow before the 
telephone became a factor in the everyday 
world. Yet each step of the climb to success 
had its sunlight as well as its shadow, its humor 
as well as its pathos; and it was fortunate both 
men appreciated this fact for it floated them 
over many a rough sea. Man can spare almost 
any other attribute better than his sense of 
humor. Without this touchstone he is ill 
equipped to battle with life,” concluded Mr. 
Hazen whimsically. 


CHAPTER XI 


THE REST OF THE STORY 

“ I SHOULD think,” commented Laurie one 
day, when Ted and Mr. Hazen were sitting in 
his room, “ that Mr. Bell’s landlady would 
have fussed no end to have his telephone ring- 
ing all the time.” 

“ My dear boy, you do not for an instant 
suppose that the telephones of that period had 
bells, do you?” replied Mr. Hazen with 
amusement. “No, indeed! There was no 
method for signaling. Unless two persons 
agreed to talk at a specified hour of the day or 
night and timed their conversation by the 
clock, or else had recourse to the Morse code, 
there was no satisfactory way they could call 
one another. This did not greatly matter 
when you recollect how few telephones there 
were in existence. Mr. Williams used to sum- 
mon a listener by tapping on the metal dia- 
phragm of the instrument with his pencil, a 
practice none too beneficial to the transmitter; 
nor was the resulting sound powerful enough 
to reach any one who was not close at hand. 
Furthermore, persons could not stand and 
hold their telephones and wait until they 


142 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

could arouse the party at the other end of the 
line for a telephone weighed almost ten pounds 
and — ” 

“ Ten pounds! ” repeated Ted in consterna- 
tion. 

Mr. Hazen nodded. 

“ Yes,” answered he, “ the early telephones 
were heavy, cumbersome objects and not at 
all like the trim, compact instruments we have 
to-day. In fact, they were quite similar to the 
top of a sewing-machine box, only, perhaps, 
they were a trifle smaller. You can under- 
stand that one would not care to carry on a 
very long conversation if he must in the mean- 
time stand and hold in his arms a ten-pound 
object about ten inches long, six inches wide, 
and six inches high.” 

“ I should say not! ” Laurie returned. “ It 
must have acted as a fine check, though, on 
people who just wanted to gabble.” 

Both Ted and the tutor laughed. 

“ Of course telephone owners could not go 
on that way,” Ted said, after the merriment 
had subsided. “ What did Mr. Bell do about 
it?” 

“The initial step for betterment was not 
taken by Mr. Bell but by Mr. Watson,” Mr. 
Hazen responded. “ He rigged a little ham- 
mer inside the box and afterwards put a but- 
ton on the outside. This thumper was the first 
calling device ever in use. Later on, however, 


THE REST OF THE STORY 143 

the assistant felt he could improve on this 
method and he adapted the buzzer of the har- 
monic telegraph to the telephone; this proved 
to be a distinct advance over the more primi- 
tive thumper but nevertheless he was not satis- 
fied with it as a signaling apparatus. So he 
searched farther still, and with the aid of one 
of the shabby little books on electricity that 
he had purchased for a quarter from Wil- 
liams’s tiny showcase, he evolved the magneto- 
electric call bell such as we use to-day. This 
answered every purpose and nothing has ever 
been found that has supplanted it. It is some- 
thing of a pity that Watson did not think to 
affix his name to this invention; but he was too 
deeply interested in what he was doing and 
probably too busy to consider its value. His 
one idea was to help Mr. Bell to improve the 
telephone in everyway possible and measuring 
what he was going to get out of it was appar- 
ently very far from his thought. Of course, 
the first of these call bells were not perfect, 
any more than were the first telephones; by 
and by, however, their defects were remedied 
until they became entirely satisfactory.” 

“ So they now had telephones, transmitters, 
and call bells,” reflected Ted. “ I should say 
they were pretty well ready for business.” 

“You forget the switchboard,” was Mr. 
Hazen’s retort. “ A one-party line was a lux- 
ury and a thing practically beyond the reach 


144 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


of the public. At best there were very few 
of them. No, some method for connecting 
parties who wished to speak to one another 
had to be found and it is at this juncture of 
the telephone’s career that a new contributor 
to the invention’s success comes upon the scene. 

“ Doing business at Number 342 Washing- 
ton Street was a young New Yorker by the 
name of Edwin T. Holmes, who had charge 
of his father’s burglar-alarm office. As all 
the electrical equipment he used was made at 
Williams’s shop, he used frequently to go there 
and one day, when he entered, he came upon 
Charles Williams, the proprietor of the store, 
standing before a little box that rested on a 
shelf and shouting into it. Hearing Mr. 
Holmes’s step, he glanced over his shoulder, 
met his visitor’s astonished gaze, and laughed. 

“ ‘ For Heaven’s sake, Williams, what have 
you got in that box? ’ demanded Mr. Holmes. 

“ 1 Oh, this is what that fellow out there by 
Watson’s bench, Mr. Bell, calls a telephone,’ 
replied Mr. Williams. 

“ ‘ So that ’s the thing I have seen squibs in 
the paper about! ’ observed the burglar-alarm 
man with curiosity. 

“ * Yes, he and Watson have been working 
at it for some time.’ 

“ Now Mr. Holmes knew Tom Watson well 
for the young electrician had done a great deal 
of work for him in the past; moreover, the 


THE REST OF THE STORY 145 

New York man was a person who kept well 
abreast of the times and was always alert for 
novel ideas. Therefore quite naturally he be- 
came interested in the embryo enterprise and 
dropped into Williams’s shop almost every day 
to see how the infant invention was progress- 
ing. In this way he met both Mr. Gardiner 
Hubbard and Mr. Thomas Saunders, who 
were Mr. Bell’s financial sponsors. After Mr. 
Holmes had been a spectator of the telephone 
for some time, he remarked to Mr. Hubbard: 

“ 1 If you succeed in getting two or three of 
those things to work and will lend them to me, 
I will show them to Boston.’ 

“/Show them to Boston,’ repeated Mr. 
Hubbard. 1 How will you do that? ’ 

“ 1 Well,’ said Mr. Holmes, ‘ I have a Cen- 
tral Office down at Number 342 Washington 
Street from which I have individual wires 
running to most of th<? banks, many jeweler’s 
shops, and other stores. I can ring a bell in a 
bank from my office and the bank can ring one 
to me in return. By using switches and giving 
a prearranged signal to the Exchange Bank, 
both of us could throw a switch which would 
put the telephones in circuit and we could talk 
together.’ 

“ After looking at Mr. Holmes for a mo- 
ment with great surprise, Mr. Hubbard 
slapped him on the back and said, ‘ I will do 
it! Get your switches and other things ready.’ 


1 46 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

“ Of course Mr. Holmes was greatly elated 
to be the first one to show on his wires this 
wonderful new instrument and connect two or 
more parties through a Central Office. He 
immediately had a switchboard made (its 
actual size was five by thirty-six inches) 
through which he ran a few of his burglar- 
alarm circuits and by means of plugs he ar- 
ranged so that he could throw the circuit from 
the burglar-alarm instruments to the tele- 
phone. He also had a shelf made to rest the 
telephones on and had others like it built at 
the Exchange National and the Hide and 
Leather banks. In a few days the telephones, 
numbered 6, 7, and 8, arrived and were quickly 
installed, and the marvellous exhibition 
opened. Soon two more instruments were 
added, one of which was placed in the bank- 
ing house of Brewster, Bassett and Company 
and the other in the Shoe and Leather Bank. 
When the Williams shop was connected, it 
gave Mr. Holmes a working exchange of five 
connections, the first telephone exchange in 
history.” 

“ I ’ll bet they had some queer times with 
it,” asserted Ted. 

“They did, indeed!” smiled Mr. Hazen. 
“ The papers announced the event, although in 
very retiring type, and persons of every walk 
in life flocked to the Holmes office to see the 
wonder with their own eyes. So many came 


THE REST OF THE STORY 147 

that Mr. Holmes had a long bench made so 
that visitors could sit down and watch the 
show. One day a cornetist played from the 
Holmes building so that the members of the 
Boston Stock Exchange, assembled at the of- 
fice of Brewster, Bassett and Company, could 
hear the performance. Considering the in- 
novation a great boon, the New York man 
secured another instrument and after medi- 
tating some time on whom he would bestow 
it he decided to install it in the Revere Bank, 
thinking the bank people would be delighted 
to be recipients of the favor. His burglar- 
alarm department had pass-keys to all the 
banks and therefore, when banking hours were 
over, he and one of his men obtained entrance 
and put the telephone in place. The follow- 
ing morning he had word that the president of 
the bank wished to see him and expecting to 
receive thanks for the happy little surprise he 
had given the official, he hurried to the bank. 
Instead of expressing gratitude, however, the 
president of the institution said in an injured 
tone: 

“ ‘ Mr. Holmes, what is that play toy you 
have taken the liberty of putting up out there 
in the banking room? ’ 

“ 1 Why, that is what they are going to call 
a telephone, 5 explained Mr. Holmes. 

“ 1 A telephone! What 5 s a telephone? 5 in- 
quired the president. 


148 ted and the telephone 

“With enthusiasm the New Yorker care- 
fully sketched in the new invention and told 
what could be done with it. 

“ After he had finished he was greatly as- 
tonished to have the head of the bank reply 
with scorn: 

“ ‘ Mr. Holmes, you take that plaything out 
of my bank and don’t ever take such liberties 
again.’ 

“You may be sure the plaything was 
quickly removed and the Revere Bank went 
on record as having the first telephone discon- 
nection in the country. 

“ Having exhibited the telephones for a 
couple of weeks, Mr. Holmes went to Mr. 
Hubbard and suggested that he would like to 
continue to carry on the exchange but he 
should like it put on a business basis. 

“ 1 Have you any money? ’ asked Mr. Hub- 
bard. 

“ ‘ Mighty little,’ was the frank answer. 

“ 1 Well, that ’s more than we have got,’ 
Mr. Hubbard responded. ‘ However, if you 
have got enough money to do the business and 
build the exchange, we will rent you the tele- 
phones.’ 

“ By August, 1877, when Bell’s patent was 
sixteen months’ old, Casson’s History tells us 
there were seven hundred and seventy-eight 
telephones in use and the Bell Telephone Asso- 
ciation was formed. The organization was 


THE REST OF THE STORY 149 

held together by an extremely simple agree- 
ment which gave Bell, Hubbard, and Saun- 
ders a three-tenths’ interest apiece in the pat- 
ents and Watson one-tenth. The business pos- 
sessed no capital, as there was none to be had; 
and these four men at that time had an abso- 
lute monopoly of the telephone business, — and 
everybody else was quite willing they should 
have. 

“ In addition to these four associates was 
Charles Williams, who had from the first been 
a believer in the venture, and Mr. Holmes who 
built the first telephone exchange with his 
own money, and had about seven hundred of 
the seven hundred and seventy-eight instru- 
ments on his wires. Mr. Robert W. Devon- 
shire joined the others in August, 1877, as 
bookkeeper and general secretary and has 
since become an official in the American Tele- 
phone and Telegraph Company. 

“ Mr. Holmes rented the telephones for ten 
dollars a year and through his exchange was 
the first practical man who had the temerity 
to offer telephone service for sale. It was the 
arrival of a new idea in the business world. 

“ Now the business world is not a tranquil 
place and as soon as the new invention began 
to prosper, every sort of difficulty beset its 
path. 

“ There were those who denied that Mr. 
Bell had been first in the field with the tele- 


1 5 o TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

phone idea, and they began to contest his right 
to the patents. Other telephone companies 
sprang up and began to compete with the 
rugged-hearted pioneers who had launched 
the industry. Lawsuits followed and for years 
Mr. Bell’s days were one continual fight to 
maintain his claims and keep others from 
wresting his hard-earned prosperity from him. 
But in time smoother waters were reached and 
now Alexander Graham Bell has been uni- 
versally conceded to be the inventor of this 
marvel without which we of the present 
should scarcely know how to get on.” 

“ I don’t believe we could live without tele- 
phones now, do you?” remarked Laurie 
thoughtfully. 

“ Oh, I suppose we could keep alive,” 
laughed Mr. Hazen, “ but I am afraid our 
present order of civilization would have to be 
changed a good deal. We scarcely realize 
what a part the telephone plays in almost 
everything we attempt to do. Certainly the 
invention helps to speed up our existence; 
and, convenient as it is, I sometimes am un- 
grateful enough to wonder whether we should 
not be a less highly strung and nervous nation 
without it. However that may be, the tele- 
phone is here, and here to stay, and you now 
have a pretty clear idea of its early history. 
How from these slender beginnings the indus- 
try spread until it spanned continents and cir- 


THE REST OF THE STORY 15 1 

cled the globe, you can easily read elsewhere. 
Yet mighty as this factor has become in the 
business world, it is not from this angle of its 
greatness that I like best to view it. I would 
rather think of the lives it has saved ; the good 
news it has often borne; the misunderstandings 
it has prevented ; the better unity it has pro- 
moted among all peoples. Just as the railroad 
was a gigantic agent in bringing North, South, 
East, and West closer together, so the tele- 
phone has helped to make our vast country, 
with its many diverse elements, 1 one nation, 
indivisible.’ ” 


CHAPTER XII 


CONSPIRATORS 

WITH September a tint of scarlet crept into 
the foliage bordering the little creeks that stole 
from the river into the Aldercliffe meadows; 
tangles of goldenrod and purple asters 
breathed of autumn, and the mornings were 
now too chilly for a swim. Had it not been 
for the great fireplace the shack would not 
have been livable. For the first time both Ted 
and Laurie realized that the summer they had 
each enjoyed so heartily was at an end and 
they were face to face with a different phase 
of life. 

The harvest, with its horde of vegetables 
and fruit, had been gathered into the yawning 
barns and cellars and the earth that had given 
so patiently of its increase had earned the right 
to lay fallow until the planting of another 
spring. Ted’s work was done. He had helped 
deposit the last barrel of ruddy apples, the 
last golden pumpkins within doors, and now 
he had nothing more to do but to pack up his 
possessions preparatory to returning to Free- 
man’s Falls, there to rejoin his family and con- 
tinue his studies. 


CONSPIRATORS 


153 

Once the thought that the drudgery of sum- 
mer was over would have been a delightful 
one. Why, he could remember the exultation 
with which he had burned the last cornstalks 
at the end of the season when at home in Ver- 
mont. The ceremony had been a rite of hilari- 
ous rejoicing. But this year, strange to say, a 
dull sadness stole over him whenever he looked 
upon the devastated gardens and the reaches of 
bare brown earth. There was nothing to keep 
him longer either at Aldercliffe or Pine Lea. 
His work henceforth lay at school. 

It was strange that a little sigh accompanied 
the thought for had he not always looked for- 
ward to this very prospect? What was the 
matter now? Was not studying the thing he 
had longed to be free to do? Why this re- 
gret and depression? And why was his own 
vague sadness reflected in Laurie’s eyes and 
in those of Mr. Hazen? Summer could not 
last forever; it was childish to ask that it 
should. They all had known from the be- 
ginning that these days of companionship 
must slip away and come to an end. And yet 
the end had come so quickly. Why, it had 
scarcely been midsummer before the twilight 
had deepened and the days mellowed into 
autumn. 

Well, they had held many happy, happy 
hours for Ted, at least. Never had he 
dreamed of such pleasures. He had enjoyed 


i 5 4 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

his work, constant though it had been, and 
had come to cherish as much pride in the gar- 
dens of Aldercliffe and Pine Lea, in the vast 
crops of hay that bulged from the barn lofts, as 
if they had been his own. And when working 
hours were over there was Laurie Fernald 
and the new and pleasant friendship that ex- 
isted between them. 

As Ted began to drag out from beneath his 
bunk the empty wooden boxes he purposed to 
pack his books in, his heart sank. Soon the 
cosy house in which he had passed so many 
perfect hours would be quite denuded. Frosts 
would nip the flowers nodding in a final glory 
of color outside the windows; the telephone 
would be disconnected; his belongings would 
once more be crowded into the stuffy little flat 
at home; and the door of the camp on the 
river’s edge would be tightly locked on a de- 
serted paradise. 

Of course, everything had to come to an end 
some time and often when he had been weed- 
ing long, and what seemed interminable rows 
of seedlings and had been making only feeble 
progress at the task, the thought that termina- 
tion of his task was an ultimate certainty had 
been a consolation mighty and sustaining. 
Such an uninteresting undertaking could not 
last forever, he told himself over and over 
again ; nothing ever did. And now with ironic 
conformity to law, his philosophy had turned 


CONSPIRATORS 


155 


on him, demonstrating beyond cavil that not 
only did the things one longed to be free of 
come to a sure finality but so did those one 
pined to have linger. 

Although night was approaching, too intent 
had he been on his reveries to notice that the 
room was in darkness. How still everything 
was ! That was the way the little hut would be 
after he was gone, — cold, dark, and silent. 
He wondered as he sat there whether he 
should ever come back. Would the Fernalds 
want him next season and again offer him the 
boathouse for a home? They had said nothing 
about it but if he thought he was to return an- 
other summer it would not be so hard to go 
now. It was leaving forever that saddened 
him. 

He must have remained immovable there in 
the twilight for a much longer time than he 
realized ; and perhaps he would have sat there 
even longer had not a sound startled him into 
breathless attention. It was the rhythmic 
stroke of a canoe paddle and as it came nearer 
it was intermingled with the whispers of muf- 
fled voices. Possibly he might have thought 
nothing of the happening had there not been 
a note of tense caution in the words that came 
to his ear. 

Who could be navigating the river at this 
hour of the night? Surely not pleasure-seek- 
ers, for it was very cold and an approaching 


156 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

storm had clouded in the sky until it had be- 
come a dome of velvet blackness. Whoever 
was venturing out upon the river must either 
know the stream very well or be reckless of his 
own safety. 

Ted did not move but listened intently. 

“ Let ’s take a chance and land,” he heard 
a thick voice murmur. “ The boy has evi- 
dently either gone to bed or he is n’t here. 
Whichever the case, he can do us no harm and 
I ’m not for risking the river any farther. It ’s 
black as midnight. We might get into the cur- 
rent and have trouble.” 

“ What ’s the sense of running our heads 
into a noose by landing? ” objected a second 
speaker. “We can’t talk here — that’s non- 
sense.” 

“ I tell you the boy is n’t in the hut,” re- 
torted his comrade. “ I remember now that 
I heard he was going back to the Falls to 
school. Likely he has gone already. In any 
case we can try the door and examine the win- 
dows; if the place is locked, we shall be sure 
he is not here. And should it prove to be in- 
habited, we can easy hatch up some excuse for 
coming. He ’ll be none the wiser. Even if he 
should be here,” added the man after a pause, 
“ he is probably asleep. After a hard day’s 
work a boy his age sleeps like a log. There ’ll 
be no waking him, so don’t fret. Come! 
Let ’s steer for the float.” 


CONSPIRATORS 


i57 


“ But I — ” 

“ Great Heavens, Cronin! We’ve got to 
take some chances. You ’re not getting cold 
feet so soon, are you?” burst out the other 
scornfully. 

“N — o! Of course not,” his companion 
declared with forced bravado. “ But I don’t 
like taking needless risks. The boy might be 
awake and hear us.” 

“ What if he does? Have n’t I told you I 
will invent some yarn to put him off the scent? 
He would n’t be suspecting mischief, anyhow. 
I tell you I ’m not going drifting round this 
river in the dark any longer. Next thing we 
know we may hit a snag and upset.” 

“ But you insisted on coming.” 

“ I know I did,” snapped the sharp voice. 
“ What chance had we to talk in a crowded 
boarding-house whose very walls had ears? 
Or on the village streets? I knew the river 
would have no listeners and you see I was 
right; it hasn’t. But I did expect there 
would be a trifle more light. It is like ink, 
is n’t it? You can’t see your hand before 
your face.” 

“ I don’t believe we could find the float even 
if we tried for it,” piped his friend with ma- 
licious satisfaction. 

“ Find it? Of course we can. I ’ve trav- 
eled this river too many times to get lost on 
it. I know every inch of the stream.” 


1 58 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

“ But are n’t there boats at the landing? ” 

“ Oh, they ’ve been hauled in for the season 
long ago. I know that to be a fact.” 

“Then I guess young Turner must have 
gone.” 

“ That ’s what I ’ve been trying to tell you 
for the last half-hour,” asserted the other voice 
with high-pitched irritation. “ Why waste all 
this time? Let’s land, talk things over, lay 
our plans, and be getting back to Freeman’s 
Falls. We mustn’t be seen returning to the 
town together too late for it might arouse sus- 
picion.” 

“ You ’re right there.” 

“ Then go ahead and paddle for the land- 
ing. I ’ll steer. Just have your hand out so we 
won’t bump.” 

The lapping of the paddles came nearer 
and nearer. Then there was a crash as the 
nose of the canoe struck the float. 

“You darned idiot, Cronin! Why didn’t 
you fend her off as I told you to? ” 

“ I could n’t see. I — ” 

“ Hush!” 

A moment of breathless silence followed 
and then there was a derisive laugh. 

“ I told you the boy was n’t here,” one of the 
men declared aloud. “ If he had been he 
would have had his head out the window by 
now. We ’ve made noise enough to wake the 
dead.” 


CONSPIRATORS 


159 


“ But he may be here for all that,” cau- 
tioned the other speaker. “ Don’t talk so 
loud.” 

“ Nonsense! ” his comrade retorted without 
lowering his tone. “ I tell you the boy has 
gone back home and the hut is as empty as a 
last year’s bird’s nest. I ’ll stake my oath on it 
The place is shut and locked tight as a drum. 
You ’ll see I ’m right presently.” 

Instantly Ted’s brain was alert. The door 
was locked, that he knew, for when he came in 
he had bolted it for the night. One window, 
however, was open and he dared not attempt 
to close it lest he make some betraying sound ; 
and even were he able to shut it noiselessly he 
reflected that the procedure would be an un- 
wise one since it would cut him off from hear- 
ing the conversation. No, he must keep per- 
fectly still and trust that his nocturnal visitors 
would not make too thorough an investigation 
of the premises. 

To judge from the scuffling of feet outside, 
both of them had now alighted from the canoe 
and were approaching the door. Soon he 
heard a hand fumbling with the latch and 
afterward came a heavy knock. 

Slipping breathlessly from his chair he 
crouched upon the floor, great beads of per- 
spiration starting out on his forehead. 

“The door is locked, as I told you,” he 
heard some one mutter. 


160 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


“ He may be asleep.” 

“ We can soon make sure. Ah, there ! Tur- 
ner! Turner!” 

Once more a series of blows descended upon 
the wooden panel. 

“ Does that convince you, Cronin? ” 

“Y — e — s,” owned Cronin reluctantly. 
“ I guess he ’s gone.” 

“Of course he’s gone! Come, brace up, 
can’t you? ” urged his companion. “ Where ’s 
your backbone? ” 

“ I ’m not afraid.” 

“Tell that to the marines! You’re timid 
and jumpy as a girl. How are we ever to put 
this thing over if you don’t pull yourself to- 
gether? I might as well have a baby to help 
me,” sneered the gruff voice. 

“ Don’t be so hard on me, Alf,” whined his 
comrade. “ I ain’t done nothin’. Ain’t I right 
here and ready? ” 

“You’re here, all right,” snarled the first 
speaker, “ but whether you ’re ready or not 
is another matter. Now I’m going to give 
you a last chance to pull out. Do you want to 
go ahead or don’t you? It ’s no good for us to 
be laying plans if you are going to be weak- 
kneed at the end and balk at carrying them 
out. Do you mean to stand by me and see this 
thing to a finish or don’t you? ” 

“I — sure I do!” 

“ Cross your heart? ” 


CONSPIRATORS 


161 


“Cross my heart!” This time the words 
echoed with more positiveness. 

“ You ’re not going to back out or squeal? ” 
his pal persisted. 

“ Why, Alf , how can you — ” 

“ Because I ’ve got to be sure before I stir 
another inch.” 

“ But ain’t I told you over and over again 
that I — ” 

“ I don’t trust you.” 

“ What makes you so hard on a feller, Alf? ” 
whimpered Cronin. “ I have n’t been mixed 
up in as many of these jobs as you have and is 
it surprising that I’m a mite nervous? It ’s no 
sign that I ’m crawling.” 

“ You ’re ready to stick it out, then? ” 

“ Sure!” 

There was another pause. 

“ Well, let me just tell you this, Jim Cronin. 
If you swear to stand by me and don’t do it, 
your miserable life won’t be worth a farthing 
— understand? I ’ll wring your neck, wring 
it good and thorough. I ’m not afraid to do it 
and I will. You know that, don’t you? ” 

“ Yes.” 

The terror-stricken monosyllable made it 
perfectly apparent that Cronin did know. 

“ Then suppose we get down to hard tacks,” 
asserted his companion, the note of fierceness 
suddenly dying out of his tone. “ Come and 
sit down and we ’ll plan the thing from start 


1 62 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


to finish. We may as well be comfortable 
while we talk. There ’s no extra charge for 
sitting.” 

As Ted bent to put his ear to the crack of 
the door, the thud of a heavy body jarred the 
shack. 

“Jove!” he heard Cronin cry. “The 
ground is some way down, ain’t it? ” 

“ And it ’s none to soft at that,” came grimly 
from his comrade, as a second person slumped 
upon the planks outside. 

Somebody drew a long breath and while the 
men were making themselves more comfort- 
able on the float Ted waited expectantly in 
the darkness. 


CHAPTER XIII 

WHAT TED HEARD 

u Now the question is which way are we 
going to get the biggest results,” Alf began, 
when they were both comfortably settled with 
their backs to the door. “ That must be the 
thing that governs us — that, and the sacrifice 
of as few lives as possible. Not their lives, of 
course. I don’t care a curse for the Fernalds; 
the more of them that go sky-high the better, 
in my estimation. It ’s the men I mean, our 
own people. Some of them will have to die, I 
know that. It’s unavoidable, since the fac- 
tories are never empty. Even when no night 
shifts are working, there are always watchmen 
and engineers on the job. But fortunately just 
now, owing to the dull season, there are no 
night gangs on duty. If we decide on the mills 
it can be done at night; if on the Fernalds 
themselves, why we can set the bombs when we 
are sure that they are in their houses.” 

Ted bit his lips to suppress the sudden ex- 
clamation of horror that rose to them. He 
must not cry out, he told himself. Terrible 
as were the words he heard, unbelievable as 


1 64 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


they seemed, if he were to be of any help at all 
he must know the entire plot. Therefore he 
listened dumbly, struggling to still the beating 
of his heart. 

For a moment there was no response from 
Cronin. 

“ Come, Jim, don’t sit there like a graven 
image! ” the leader of the proposed expedition 
exclaimed impatiently. “ Have n’t you a 
tongue in your head? What’s your idea? 
Out with it. I ’m not going to shoulder all the 
job.” 

The man called Cronin cleared his throat. 

“ As I see it, we gain nothing by blowing up 
the Fernald houses,” answered he deliberately. 
“ So long as the mills remain, their income is 
sure. After they ’re gone, the young one will 
just rebuild and go on wringing money out of 
the people as his father and grandfather are 
doing.” 

“ But we mean to get him, too.” 

A murmured protest came from Cronin. 

“ I ’m not for injuring that poor, unlucky 
lad,” asserted he. “ He ’s nothing but a crip- 
ple who can’t help himself. It would be like 
killing a baby.” 

“Nonsense! What a sentimental milksop 
you are, Jim!” Alf cut in. “You can’t go 
letting your feelings run away with you like 
that, old man. I ’m sorry for the young chap, 
too. He ’s the most decent one of the lot. But 


WHAT TED HEARD 165 

that is n’t the point. He ’s a Fernald and be- 
cause I e is — ” 

“ Bui he is n’t to blame for that, is he? ” 

“ You make me tired, Cronin, with all this 
cry-baby stuff!” Alf ejaculated. “You’ve 
simply got to cut it out — shut your ears to it 
— if we are ever to accomplish anything. You 
can’t let your sympathies run away with you 
like this.” 

“ I ain’t letting my sympathies run away 
with me,” objected Cronin, in a surly tone. 
“ And I ’m no milksop, either. But I won’t 
be a party to harming that unfortunate Mr. 
Laurie and you may as well understand that 
at the outset. I ’m willing to do my share in 
blowing the Fernald mills higher than a kite, 
and the two Fernalds with ’em; or I ’ll blow 
the two Fernalds to glory in their beds. I 
could do it without turning a hair. But to 
injure that helpless boy of theirs I can’t and 
won’t. That .would be too low-down a deed 
for me, bad as I am. He has n’t the show the 
others have. They can fend for themselves.” 

“You make me sick!” replied Alf scorn- 
fully. “ Why, you might as well throw up the 
whole job as to only half do it. What use 
will it be to take the old men of the family if 
the young one still lives on? ” 

“ I ain’t going to argue with you, Alf,” re- 
sponded Cronin stubbornly. “ If I were to 
talk all night you likely would never see my 


1 66 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


point. But there I stand and you can take it or 
leave it. If you want to go on on these terms, 
well and good; if not, I wash my hands of the 
whole affair and you can find somebody else 
to help you.” 

“ Of course I can’t find somebody else,” was 
the exasperated retort. “ You know that well 
enough. Do you suppose I would go on with 
a scheme like this and leave you wandering 
round to blab broadcast whatever you thought 
fit?” 

“ I should n’t blab, Alf,” declared Cronin. 
“You could trust me to hold my tongue and 
not peach on a pal. I should just pull out, 
that ’s all. I warn you, though, that if our 
ways parted and you went yours, I should do 
what I could to keep Mr. Laurie out of your 
path.” 

“ You ’d try the patience of Job, Cronin.” 

“ I ’m sorry.” 

“No, you’re not,” snarled Alf. “You’re 
just doing this whole thing to be cussed. You 
know you ’ve got me where I can’t stir hand 
or foot. I was a fool ever to have got mixed 
up with such a white-livered, puling baby. I 
might have known you had n’t an ounce of 
sand.” 

“ Take care, Sullivan,” cautioned Cronin in 
a low, tense voice. 

“ But hang it all — why do you want to balk 
and torment me so? ” 


WHAT TED HEARD 


167 


“ I ain’t balking and tormenting you.” 

“Yes, you are. You’re just pulling the 
other way from sheer contrariness. Why can’t 
you be decent and come across? ” 

“ Have n’t I been decent? ” Cronin an- 
swered. “ Have n’t I fallen in with every idea 
you’ve suggested? You’ve had your way 
fully and freely. I have n’t stood out for a 
single thing but this, have I? ” 

“ N — o. But — ” 

“ Well, why not give in and let me have this 
one thing as I want it? It don’t amount to 
much, one way or the other. The boy is sickly 
and is n’t likely to live long at best.” 

“ But I can’t for the life of me see why you 
should be so keen on sparing him. What is 
he to you?” 

Cronin hesitated; then in a very low voice 
he said: 

“ Once, two years ago, my little kid got out 
of the yard and unbeknown to his mother wan- 
dered down by the river. We hunted high 
and low for him and were well-nigh crazy, for 
he ’s all the child we have, you know. It seems 
Mr. Laurie was riding along the shore in his 
automobile and he spied the baby creeping 
out on the thin ice. He stopped his car and 
called to the little one and coaxed him back 
until the chauffeur could get to him and lift 
him aboard the car. Then they fetched the 
child to the village, hunted up where he lived, 


1 68 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


and brought him home to his mother. I — 
I Ve never forgotten it and I shan’t.” 

“ That was mighty decent of Mr. Laurie — 
mighty decent,” Sullivan admitted slowly. 
“ I ’ve got a kid at home myself.” 

For a few moments neither man spoke; then 
Sullivan continued in quick, brisk fashion, as 
if he were trying to banish some reverie that 
plagued him: 

“ Well, have your way. We ’ll leave Mr. 
Laurie out of this altogether.” 

“ Thank you, Alf.” 

Sullivan paid no heed to the interruption. 

“Now let’s can all this twaddle and get 
down to work,” he said sharply. “ We ’ve 
wasted too much time squabbling over that 
miserable cripple. Let ’s brace up and make 
our plans. You are for destroying the mills, 
eh?” 

“ It ’s the only thing that will be any use, it 
seems to me,” Cronin replied. “ If the mills 
are blown up, it will not only serve as a warn- 
ing to the Fernalds but it will mean the loss of 
a big lot of money. They will rebuild, of 
course, but it will take time, and in the interval 
everything will be at a standstill.” 

“ It will throw several hundred men out of 
work,” Sullivan objected. 

“ That can’t be helped,” retorted Cronin. 
“ They will get out at least with their lives 
and will be almighty thankful for that. They 


WHAT TED HEARD 


169 


can get other jobs, I guess. But even if they 
are out of work, I figure some of them won’t be 
so sorry to see the Fernalds get what ’s coming 
to them,” chuckled Cronin. 

“ You ’re right there, Jim! ” 

“ I ’ll bet I am! ” cried Cronin. 

“ Then your notion would be to plant time 
bombs at the factories so they will go off in 
the night? ” 

“ Yes,” confessed Cronin, a shadow of regret 
in his tone. “ That will carry off only a few 
watchmen and engineers. Mighty tough luck 
for them.” 

“ It can’t be helped,” Sullivan said ruth- 
lessly. “ You can’t expect to carry through a 
thing of this sort without some sacrifice. All 
we can do is to believe that the end justifies 
the means. It ’s a case of the greatest good 
to the greatest number.” 

“I — suppose — so.” 

“ Well, then, why hesitate? ” 

“ I ain’t hesitating,” announced Cronin 
quickly. “ I just happened to remember Ma- 
guire. He ’s one of the night watchmen at the 
upper mill and a friend of mine.” 

“ But we can’t remember him, Cronin,” Sul- 
livan burst out. “ It is unlucky that he chances 
to be on duty, of course; but that is his misfor- 
tune. We ’d spare him if we could.” 

“ I know, I know,” Cronin said. “ It ’s a 
pitiless business.” Then, as if his last feeble 


i yo TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

compunction vanished with the words, he 
added, “ It ’s to be the mills, then.” 

“ Yes. We seem to be agreed on that,” Sulli- 
van replied eagerly. “ I have everything 
ready and I don’t see why we can’t go right 
ahead to-night and plant the machines with 
their fuses timed for early morning. I guess 
we can sneak into the factories all right — you 
to the upper mill and I to the lower. If you 
get caught you can say you are hunting for 
Maguire; and if I do — well, I must trust to 
my wits to invent a story. But they won’t catch 
me. I ’ve never been caught yet, and I have 
handled a number of bigger jobs than this 
one,” concluded he with pride. 

“ Anything more you want to say to me? ” 
asked Cronin. 

“ No, I guess not. I don’t believe I need to 
hand you any advice. Just stiffen up, that’s 
all. Anything you want to say to me? ” 

“No. I shan’t worry my head about you, 
you old fox. You ’re too much of a master 
hand,” Cronin returned, with an inflection 
that sounded like a grin. “ I imagine you can 
hold up your end.” 

“ I rather imagine I can,” drawled Sullivan. 

“Then if there’s nothing more to be said, 
I move we start back to town. It must be late,” 
Cronin asserted. 

“ It ’s black enough to be midnight,” grum- 
bled Sullivan. “ We ’d best go directly to our 


WHAT TED HEARD 


171 

houses — I to mine and you to yours. The 
explosives and bombs I ’ll pack into two grips. 
Yours I ’ll hide in your back yard underneath 
that boat. How ’ll that be? ” 

“ O. K.” 

“ You ’ve got it straight in your head what 
you are to do? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ And I can count on you? ” 

“ Sure!” 

“ Then let ’s be off.” 

There was a splash as the canoe slipped into 
the water and afterward Ted heard the regular 
dip of the paddles as the craft moved away. 
He listened until the sound became imper- 
ceptible and when he was certain that the con- 
spirators were well out of earshot he sped to 
the telephone and called up the police station 
at Freeman’s Falls. It did not take long for 
him to hurriedly repeat to an officer what he 
had heard. Afterward, in order to make cau- 
tion doubly sure, he called up the mills and 
got his old friend Maguire at the other end of 
the line. It was not until all this had been 
done and he could do no more that he sank 
limply down on the couch and stared into the 
darkness. Now that everything was over he 
found that he was shaking like a leaf. His 
hands were icy cold and he quivered in every 
muscle of his body. It was useless for fym to 
try to sleep ; he was far too excited and worried 


172 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

for that. Therefore he lay rigidly on his bunk, 
thinking and waiting for — he knew not what. 

It might have been an hour later that he was 
aroused from a doze by the sharp reverbera- 
tion of the telephone bell. Dizzily he sprang 
to his feet and stood stupid and inert in the 
middle of the floor. Again the signal rang 
and this time he was broad awake. He rushed 
forward to grasp the receiver. 

“ Turner? Ted Turner?” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“This is the police station at Freeman’s 
Falls. We have your men — both of them — 
and the goods on them. They are safe and 
sound under lock and key. I just thought you 
might like to know it. We shall want to see 
you in the morning. You’ve done a good 
night ’s work, young one. The State Police 
have been after these fellows for two years. 
Sullivan has a record for deeds of this sort. 
Mighty lucky we got a line on him this time 
before he did any mischief.” 

“ It was.” 

“ That ’s all, thanks to you, kid. I advise 
you to go to bed now and to sleep. I ’ll hunt 
you up to-morrow. I ’ll bet the Fernalds will, 
too. They owe you something.” 


CHAPTER XIV 

THE FERNALDS WIN THEIR POINT 

The trial of Alf Sullivan and Jim Cronin 
was one of the most spectacular and thrilling 
events Freeman’s Falls had ever witnessed. 
That two such notorious criminals should have 
been captured through the efforts of a young 
boy was almost inconceivable to the police, 
especially to the State detectives whom they 
had continually outwitted. And yet here they 
were in the dock and the town officers made 
not the slightest pretense that any part of the 
glory of their apprehension belonged to them. 
To Ted Turner’s prompt action, and to that 
alone, the triumph was due. 

In consequence the boy became the hero of 
the village. He had always been a favorite 
with both young and old, for every one liked 
his father, and it followed that they liked 
his father’s son. Now, however, they had 
greater cause to admire that son for his own 
sake and cherish toward him the warmest 
gratitude. Many a man and woman reflected 
that it was this slender boy who had stood be- 
tween them and a calamity almost too horrible 
to be believed ; and as a result their gratitude 


i 7 4 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

was tremendous. And if the townsfolk were 
sensible of this great obligation how much 
more keenly alive to it were the Fernalds 
whose property had been thus menaced. 

“ You have topped one service with another, 
Ted,” Mr. Lawrence Fernald declared. “ We 
do not see how we are ever to thank you. 
Come, there must be something that you would 
like — some wish you would be happy to have 
gratified. Tell us what it is and perhaps we 
can act as magicians and make it come 
true.” 

“Yes,” pleaded Mr. Clarence Fernald, 
“ speak out, Ted. Do not hesitate. Remem- 
ber you have done us a favor the magnitude 
of which can never be measured and which we 
can never repay.” 

“ But I do not want to be paid, sir,” the lad 
answered. “ I am quite as thankful as you that 
the wretches who purposed harm were caught 
before they had had opportunity to destroy 
either life or property. Certainly that is re- 
ward enough.” 

“ It is a reward in its way,” the elder Mr. 
Fernald asserted. “The thought that it was 
you who were the savior of an entire com- 
munity will bring you happiness as long as 
you live. Nevertheless we should like to give 
you something more tangible than pleasant 
thoughts. We want you to have something by 
which to remember this marvelous escape 


FERNALDS WIN THEIR POINT 175 

from tragedy. Deep down in your heart there 
must be some wish you cherish. If you knew 
the satisfaction it would give us to gratify it, 
I am sure you would not be so reluctant to 
express it.” 

Ted colored, and after hesitating an instant, 
shyly replied : 

“ Since you are both so kind and really seem 
to wish to know, there is something I should 
like.” 

u Name it! ” the Fernalds cried in unison. 

“ I should like to feel I can return to the 
shack next summer,” the boy remarked tim- 
idly. “ You see, I have become very fond of 
Aldercliffe and Pine Lea, fond of Laurie, of 
Mr. Hazen, and of the little hut. I have felt 
far more sorry than perhaps you realize to go 
away from here.” His voice quivered. 

“You poor youngster!” Mr. Clarence ex- 
claimed. “ Why in the name of goodness 
did n’t you say so? There is no more need of 
your leaving this place than there is of my 
going, or Laurie. We ought to have sensed 
your feeling and seen to it that other plans 
were made long ago. Indeed, you shall come 
back to your little riverside abode next sum- 
mer — never fear! And as for Aldercliffe, 
Pine Lea, Laurie and all the rest of it, you 
shall not be parted from any of them.” 

“ But I must go back to school now, sir.” 

“ What’s the matter with your staying on at 


176 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

Pine Lea and having your lessons with Laurie 
and Mr. Hazen instead ?” 

“ Oh — why — ” 

“ Should you like to? ” 

“ Oh, Mr. Fernald, it would be — ” 
Laurie’s father laughed. 

“ I guess we do not need an answer to that 
question,” Grandfather Fernald remarked, 
smiling. “ His face tells the tale.” 

“ Then the thing is as good as done,” Mr. 
Clarence announced. “ Hazen will be as set 
up as an old hen to have two chicks. He likes 
you, Ted.” 

“ And well he may,” growled Grandfather 
Fernald. “ But for Ted’s prayers and pleas 
he would not now be here.” 

“Yes, Hazen will be much pleased,” reit- 
erated Mr. Clarence Fernald, ignoring his 
father’s comment. “ As for Laurie — I won- 
der we never thought of all this before. It is 
no more work to teach two boys than one, and 
in the meantime each will act as a stimulus 
for the other. The spur of rivalry will be a 
splendid incentive for Laurie, to say nothing 
of the joy he will take in your companion- 
ship. He needs young people about him. It 
is a great scheme, a great scheme!” mused 
Mr. Fernald, rubbing his hands with increas- 
ing satisfaction as one advantage of the ar- 
rangement after another rotated through his 
mind. 


FERNALDS WIN THEIR POINT 177 

“ If only my father does not object,” mur- 
mured Ted. 

“ Object! Object! ” blustered Grandfather 
Fernald. “And why, pray, should he ob- 
ject? ” 

That a man of Mr. Turner’s station in life 
should view the plan with anything but pride 
and complacency was evidently a new thought 
to the financier. 

“ Why, sir, my father and sisters are very 
fond of me and may not wish to have me re- 
main longer away from home. They have 
missed me a lot this summer, I know that. 
You see I am the youngest one, the only boy.” 

“ Humph! ” interpolated the elder Mr. Fer- 
nald. 

“ In spite of the fact that we are crowded 
at home and too busy to see much of one an- 
other, Father likes to feel I ’m around,” con- 
tinued Ted. 

“ I — suppose — so,” came slowly from the 
old gentleman. 

“ I am sure I can fix all that,” asserted Mr. 
Clarence Fernald briskly. “ I will see your 
father and sisters myself, and I feel sure they 
will not stand in the way of your getting a fine 
education when it is offered you — that is, 
if they care as much for you as you say they 
do. On the contrary, they will be the first per- 
sons to realize that such a plan is greatly to 
your advantage.” 


i 7 8 ted and the telephone 


“ It is going to be almightily to your advan- 
tage, ’’ Mr. Lawrence Fernald added. “ Who 
can tell where it all may lead? If you do well 
at your studies, perhaps it may mean college 
some day, and a big, well-paid job afterward.” 

Ted’s eyes shone. 

“ Would you like to go to college if you 
could? ” persisted the elder man. 

“ You bet I would — I mean yes, sir.” 

The old gentleman chuckled at the fervor of 
the reply. 

“ Well, well,” said he, “ time must decide all 
that. First lay a good foundation. You can- 
not build anything worth building without 
something to build upon. You get your cellar 
dug and we will then see what we will put on 
top of it.” 

With this parting remark he and his son 
moved away. 

When the project was laid before Laurie, 
his delight knew no bounds. To have Ted 
come and live at Pine Lea for the winter, what 
a lark! Think of having some one to read and 
study with every day! Nothing could be 
jollier! And Mr. Hazen was every whit as 
pleased. 

“It is the very thing!” he exclaimed to 
Laurie’s father. “Ted will not be the least 
trouble. He is a fine student and it will be a 
satisfaction to work with him. Besides, un- 
less I greatly miss my guess, he will cheer 


FERNALDS WIN THEIR POINT 179 

Laurie on to much larger accomplishments. 
Ted’s influence has never been anything but 
good.” 

And what said Laurie’s mother? 

“It is splendid, Clarence, splendid! We 
can refurnish that extra room that adjoins 
Laurie’s suite and let Mr. Hazen and the 
boys have that entire wing of the house. Noth- 
ing could be simpler. I shall be glad to have 
Ted here. Not only is he a fine boy but he 
has proved himself a good friend to us all. 
If we can do anything for him, we certainly 
should do it. The lad has had none too easy 
a time in this world.” 

Yes, all went well with the plan so far as 
the Fernalds were concerned; but the Turners 
• — ah, there was the stumbling block! 

“ It ’s no doubt a fine thing you ’re offering 
to do for my son,” Ted’s father replied to Mr. 
Clarence Fernald, “ and I assure you I am not 
unmindful of your kindness; but you see he is 
our only boy and when he is n’t here whistling 
round the house we miss him. ’Tain’t as if we 
had him at home during his vacation. If he 
goes up to your place to work summers and 
stays there winters as well, we shall scarcely 
see him at all. All we have had of him this 
last year was an occasional teatime visit. 
Folks don’t like having their children go out 
from the family roof so young.” 

“ But, Father,” put in Nancy, “ think what 


180 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


such a chance as this will mean to Ted. You 
yourself have said over and over again that 
there was nothing like having an education.” 

“ I know it,” mused the man. “ There ’s 
nothing can equal knowing something. I 
never did and look where I ’ve landed. I ’ll 
never go ahead none. But I want it to be dif- 
ferent with my boy. He ’s going to have some 
stock in trade in the way of training for life. 
It will be a kind of capital nothing can sweep 
away. As I figure it, it will be a sure invest- 
ment — that is, if the boy has any stuff in 
him.” 

“ An education is a pretty solid investment,” 
agreed the elder Mr. Fernald, “ and you are 
wise to recognize its value, Mr. Turner. To 
plunge into life without such a weapon is like 
entering battle without a sword. I know, for 
I have tried it.” 

“ Have you indeed, sir? ” 

Grandfather Fernald nodded. 

“ I was brought up on a Vermont farm when 
I was a boy.” 

“ You don’t say so ! Well, well ! ” 

“Yes, I never had much schooling,” went 
on the old man. “ Of course I picked up a lot 
of practical knowledge, as a boy will ; and in 
some ways it has not been so bad. But it was 
a pretty mixed-up lot of stuff and I have been 
all my life sorting it out and putting it in or- 
der. I sometimes wonder when I think things 


FERNALDS WIN THEIR POINT 181 


over that I got ahead at all; it was more hap- 
pen than anything else, I guess.” 

“ The Vermonters have good heads on their 
shoulders,” Mr. Turner remarked. 

“ Oh, you can’t beat the Green Moun- 
tain State,” laughed the senior Mr. Fernald, 
unbending into cordiality in the face of 
a common interest. “ Still, when it came 
to bringing up my boy I felt as you do. 
I was n’t satisfied to have him get nothing 
more than I had. So I sent him to college 
and gave him all the education I never got 
myself. It has stood him in good stead, too, 
and I ’ve lived to be proud of what he ’s done 
with it.” 

“ And well you may be, sir,” Mr. Turner 
observed. 

Mr. Clarence Fernald flushed in the face of 
these plaudits and cut the conversation short 
by saying: 

“ It is that kind of an education that we 
want to give your boy, Mr. Turner. We like 
the youngster and believe he has promise of 
something fine. We should like to prepare 
him for college or some technical school and 
send him through it. He has quite a pro- 
nounced bent for science and given the proper 
opportunities he might develop into some- 
thing beyond the ordinary rank and file.” 

“ Do you think so, sir? ” asked Mr. Turner, 
glowing with pleasure. “ Well, I don’t know 


1 82 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


but that he has a sort of knack with wire, nails, 
and queer machinery. He has tinkered with 
such things since he was a little lad. Of late 
he has been fussing round with electricity and 
scaring us all to death here at home. His sis- 
ters were always expecting he ’d meet his end 
or blow up the house with some claptraption 
he ’d put together.” 

Nancy blushed; then added, with a shy 
glance toward the Fernalds: 

“They say down at the school that Ted is 
quite handy with telephones and such things.” 

“ Mr. Hazen, my son’s tutor, thinks your 
brother has a knowledge of electricity far be- 
yond his years,” replied Mr. Clarence Fer- 
nald. “ That is why it seems a pity his talents 
in that direction should not be cultivated. 
Who knows but he may be an embryo genius? 
You never can tell what may be inside a child.” 

“You’re right there, sir,” Mr. Turner as- 
sented cordially. Then after a moment of 
thought, he continued, “ Likely an education 
such as you are figuring on would cost a mint 
of money.” 

The Fernalds, both father and son, smiled at 
the naive comment. 

“Well — yes,” confessed Mr. Clarence 
slowly. “ It would cost something.” 

“ A whole lot? ” 

“ If you wanted the best.” 

Mr. Turner scratched his head. 


FERNALDS WIN THEIR POINT 183 

“ I ’m afraid I could n’t swing it,” declared 
he, regret in his tone. 

“ But we are offering to do this for you,” put 
in Grandfather Fernald. 

“ I know you are, sir; I know you are and 
I ’m grateful,” Ted’s father answered. “ But 
if I could manage, it myself, I ’d — ” 

“ Come, Mr. Turner, I beg you won’t say 
that,” interrupted the elder Mr. Fernald. 
“ Think what we owe to your son. Why, we 
never in all the world can repay what he has 
done for us. This is no favor. We are simply 
paying our debts. You like to pay your bills, 
don’t you? ” 

“ Indeed I do, sir!” was the hearty reply. 
“ There ’s no happier moment than the one 
when I take my pay envelope and go to square 
up what I owe* True, I don’t run up many 
bills; still, there is not always money enough 
on hand to make both ends meet without de- 
pending some on credit.” 

“ How much do you get in the shipping 
room? ” 

“ Eighty dollars a month, sir.” 

“ And your daughters are working? ” 

“ They are in the spinning mills.” 

Mr. Fernald glanced about over the little 
room. Although scrupulously neat, it was 
quite apparent that the apartment was far too 
crowded for comfort. The furnishings also 
bespoke frugality in the extreme. It was not 


1 84 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

necessary to be told that the Turners’ life was 
a close arithmetical problem. 

“ Your family stand by us loyally,” observed 
the financier. 

“ We have your mills to thank for our daily 
bread, sir,” Mr. Turner answered. 

“ And your boy — if he does not go on with 
his studies shall you have him enter the fac- 
tories? ” 

Mr. Turner squared his shoulders with a 
swift gesture of protest. 

“No, sir — not if I can help it!” he burst 
out. Then as if he suddenly sensed his dis- 
courtesy, he added, “ I beg your pardon, gen- 
tlemen. I was n’t thinking who I was talking 
to. It is n’t that I do not like the mills. It ’s 
only that there is so little chance for the lad to 
get ahead there. I would n’t want the boy to 
spend his life grubbing away as I have.” 

“ And yet you are denying him the chance 
to better himself.” 

“ I am kinder going round in a circle, ain’t 
I?” returned Mr. Turner gently. “Like as 
not it is hard for you to understand how I feel. 
It ’s only that you hate to let somebody else 
do for your children. It seems like charity.” 

“Charity! Charity — when we owe the 
life of our boy, the lives of many of our work- 
men, the safety of our mills to your son?” 
ejaculated Mr. Clarence Fernald with unmis- 
takable sincerity. 


FERNALDS WIN [THEIR POINT 185 

“ When you pile it up that way it does sound 
like a pretty big debt, does n’t it? ” mused Mr. 
Turner. 

“ Of course it ’s a big debt — it is a tremend- 
ous one. Now try, Mr. Turner, and see our 
point of view. We want to take our envelope 
in our hands and although we have not fortune 
enough in the world to wipe out all we owe, 
we wish to pay part of it, at least. No matter 
how much we may be able to do for Ted in 
the future, we shall never be paying in full all 
that he has done for us. Much of his service 
we must accept as an obligation and give in re- 
turn for it nothing but gratitude and affection. 
But if you will grant us the privilege of doing 
this little, it will give us the greatest pleasure.” 

If any one had told the stately Mr. Law- 
rence Fernald weeks before that he would be 
in the home of one of his workmen, pleading 
for a favor, he would probably have shrugged 
his shoulders and laughed; and even Mr. 
Clarence Fernald, who was less of an aristo- 
crat than his father, would doubtless have 
questioned a prediction of his being obliged 
actually to implore one of the men in his em- 
ploy to accept a benefaction from him. Yet 
here they both were, almost upon their knees, 
theoretically, before this self-respecting arti- 
san. 

In the face of such entreaty who could have 
remained obdurate? Certainly not Mr. Tur- 


1 86 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


ner who in spite of his pride was the kindest- 
hearted creature alive. 

“ Well, you shall have your way, gentle- 
men,” he at length replied. “ Ted shall stay 
on at Pine Lea, since you wish it, and you shall 
plan his education as you think best. I know 
little of such matters and feel sure the problem 
is better in your hands than mine. I know you 
will work for the boy’s good. And I beg you 
won’t think me ungrateful because I have hesi- 
tated to accept your offer. We all have our 
scruples and I have mine. But now that I 
have put them in the background, I shall take 
whole-heartedly what you give and be most 
thankful for it.” 

Thus did the Fernalds win their point. 
Nevertheless they came away from the Tur- 
ner’s humble home with a consciousness that 
instead of bestowing a favor, as they had ex- 
pected to do, they had really received one. 
Perhaps they did not respect Ted’s father the 
less because of his reluctance to take the splen- 
did gift they had put within his reach. They 
themselves were proud men and they had a 
sympathy for the pride of others. There 
could be no question that the interview had 
furnished both of them with food for thought 
for as they drove home in their great touring 
car they did not speak immediately. By and 
by, however, Grandfather Fernald observed: 

“ Don’t you think, Clarence, Turner’s pay 


FERNALDS WIN THEIR POINT 187 

should be increased? Eighty dollars isn’t 
much to keep a roof over one’s head and feed 
a family of three persons.” 

“ I have been thinking that, too,” returned 
his son. “ They tell me he is a very faithful 
workman and he has been here long enough to 
have earned a substantial increase in wages. I 
don’t see why I never got round to doing some- 
thing for him before. The fellow was prob- 
ably too proud to ask for more money and un- 
less some kick comes to me those things slip 
my mind. I ’ll see right away what can be 
done.” 

There was a pause and then the senior Mr. 
Fernald spoke again: 

“ Do you ever feel -that we ought to do 
something about furnishing better quarters for 
the men? ” he asked. “ I have had the matter 
on my conscience for months. Look at that 
tenement of the Turners! It is old, out of 
date, crowded and stuffy. There is n’t a ray of 
sunshine in it. It ’s a disgrace to herd a family 
into such a place. And I suppose there are 
ever so many others like it in Freeman’s Falls.” 

“ I ’m afraid there are, Father.” 

“ I don’t like the idea of it,” growled old 
Mr. Fernald. “The houses all look well 
enough until one goes inside. But they’re 
terrible, terrible! Why, they are actually de- 
pressing. I have n’t shaken off the gloom of 
that room yet. We own land enough on the 


1 88 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


other side of the river. Why could n’t we 
build a handsome bridge and then develop 
that unused area by putting up some decent 
houses for our people? It would increase the 
value of the property and at the same time im- 
prove the living conditions of our employees. 
What do you say to the notion? ” 

“ I am ready to go in on any such scheme! ” 
cried Mr. Clarence Fernald heartily. “ I ’d 
like nothing better. I have always wanted to 
take up the matter with you; but I fancied 
from something you said once when I sug- 
gested it that you — ” 

“ I did n’t realize what those houses down 
along the water front were like,” interrupted 
Grandfather Fernald. “ Ugh! At least sun- 
shine does not cost money. We must see that 
our people get more of it.” 


CHAPTER XV 


WHAT CAME OF THE PLOT 

The Fernalds were as good as their word. 
All winter long father, son, and grandson 
worked at the scheme for the new cottages and 
by New Year, with the assistance of an archi- 
tect, they had on paper plans for a model vil- 
lage to be built on the opposite side of the river 
as soon as the weather permitted. The houses 
were gems of careful thought, no two of them 
being alike. Nevertheless, although each tiny 
domain was individual in design, a general 
uniformity of construction existed between 
them which resulted in a delightfully harmoni- 
ous ensemble. The entire Fernald family was 
enthusiastic over the project. It was the chief 
topic of conversation both at Aldercliffe and 
at Pine Lea. Rolls of blue prints littered of- 
fice and library table and cluttered the bu- 
reaus, chairs, and even the pockets of the elder 
men of each household. 

“ We are going to make a little Normandy 
on the other shore of the river before we have 
done with it,” asserted Grandfather Fernald 
to Laurie. “ It will be as pretty a settlement 


1 9 o TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

as one would wish to see. I mean, too, to build 
cooperative stores, a clubhouse, and a theater ; 
perhaps I may even go farther and put up a 
chapel. I have gone clean daft over the notion 
of a model village and since I am started I 
may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb. I 
do not believe we shall be sinking our money, 
either, for in addition to bettering the living 
conditions of our men I feel we shall also draw 
to the locality a finer class of working people. 
This will boom our section of the country and 
should make property here more valuable. 
But even if it does n’t work out that way, I 
shall take pride in the proposed village. I 
have always insisted that our mills be spotless 
and up to date and the fact that they have been 
has been a source of great gratification. Now 
I shall carry that idea farther and see that the 
new settlement comes up to our standards. I 
have gone over and over the plans to see if in 
any way they can be bettered ; suppose you and 
I look at them together once more. Some new 
inspiration may come to us — something that 
will be an improvement.” 

Patiently and for the twentieth time Laurie 
examined the blue prints while his grandfather 
volubly explained just where each building 
of the many was to stand. 

“ This little park, with a fountain in the 
middle and a bandstand near by, will slope 
down toward the river. As there are many 


WHAT CAME OF THE PLOT 19 1 

fine trees along the shore it will be a cool and 
pleasant place to sit in summer. The stone 
bridge I am to put up will cross just above 
and serve as a sort of entrance to the park. 
We intend that everything shall be laid out 
with a view to making the river front attrac- 
tive. As for the village itself — the streets are 
to be wide so that each dwelling shall have 
plenty of fresh air and sunshine. No more 
of those dingy flats such as the Turners live in! 
Each family is also to have land enough for 
a small garden, and each house will have a 
piazza and the best of plumbing; and because 
many of the women live in their kitchens more 
than in any other part of their abode, I am 
insisting that that room be as comfortable and 
airy as it can be made.” 

“ It is all bully, Grandfather,” Laurie an- 
swered. “ But is n’t it going to cost a fortune 
to do the thing as you want it done? ” 

“ It is going to cost money,” nodded the 
elder man. “ I am not deceiving myself as to 
that. But I have the money and if I chose to 
spend it on this fad (as one of my friends 
called it) I do n’t see why I should n’t do it. 
Since your grandmother died I have not felt 
the same interest in Aldercliffe that I used to. 
When she was alive that was my hobby. I 
shall simply be putting out the money in a 
different direction, that is all. Perhaps it will 
be a less selfish direction, too.” 


i 9 2 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

“ It certainly is a bully fine fad, Grand- 
father,” Laurie exclaimed. 

“ Somehow I believe it is, laddie,” the old 
gentleman answered thoughtfully. “ Your 
father thinks so. Time only can tell whether 
I have chucked my fortune in a hole or really 
invested it wisely. I have been doing a good 
deal of serious thinking lately, thanks to those 
chaps who tried to blow up the mills. As I 
have turned matters over in my mind since 
the trial, and struggled to get their point of 
view, I have about come to the conclusion that 
they had a fair measure of right on their side. 
Not that I approve of their methods,” con- 
tinued he hastily, raising a protesting hand, 
when Laurie offered an angry interruption. 
“ Do not misunderstand me. The means they 
took was cowardly and criminal and I do not 
for a moment uphold it. But the thing that 
led them to act as they planned to act was that 
they honestly believed we had not given them 
and their comrades a square deal. As I have 
pondered over this conviction of theirs, I 
am not so sure but they were right in that 
belief.” 

He paused to light a fresh cigar which he 
silently puffed for a few moments. 

“This village plan of mine has grown to 
some extent out of the thinking to which this 
tragedy has stimulated me. There can be no 
question that our fortunes have come to us as 


WHAT CAME OF THE PLOT 193 

a result of the hard labor of our employees. I 
know that. And I also know that we have 
rolled up a far larger proportion of the profits 
than they have. In fact, I am not sure we have 
not accepted a larger slice than was our due; 
and I am not surprised that some of them are 
also of that opinion. I would not go so far as 
to say we have been actually dishonest but I 
am afraid we have not been generous. The 
matter never came to me before in precisely 
this light and I confess frankly I am sorry that 
I have blundered. Nevertheless, as I tell your 
father, it is never too late to mend. If we have 
made mistakes we at least do not need to con- 
tinue to make them. So I have resolved to 
pay up some of my past obligations by build- 
ing this village and afterward your dad and I 
plan to raise the wages of the workers — raise 
them voluntarily without their asking. I fig- 
ure we shall have enough to keep the wolf 
from the door, even then,” he added, smil- 
ing, “ and if we should find we had not 
why we should simply have to come back 
on you and Ted Turner to support us, that ’s 
all.” 

Laurie broke into a ringing laugh. 

“ I would much rather you and Dad spent 
the money this way than to have you leave it 
all to me,” he said presently. 

“ One person does not need so much money. 
It is more than his share of the world’s profits 


194 TED and the telephone 

— especially if he has earned none of it. Be- 
sides, when a fortune is handed over to you, 
it spoils all the fun of making one for your- 
self.” The boy’s eyes clouded wistfully. “ I 
suppose anyhow I never shall be able to work 
as hard as you and Father have; still I — ” 

“ Pooh! Pooh! Nonsense! ” his grandfather 
interrupted huskily. 

“ I believe I shall be able to earn enough 
to take care of myself,” continued Laurie 
steadily. “ In any case I mean to try.” 

“ Of course you will! ” cried the elder man 
heartily. “ Why, are n’t you expecting to be 
an engineer or something? ” 

“I — I — hope — to,” replied the boy. 
“Certainly! Certainly!” fidgeted Grand- 
father Fernald nervously. “ You are going to 
be a great man some day, Laurie — a consult- 
ing engineer, maybe; or a famous electrician, 
or something of the sort.” 

“ I wish I might,” the lad repeated. “ You 
see, Grandfather, it is working out your own 
career that is the fun, making something all 
yourself. That is why I hate the idea of ever 
stepping into your shoes and having to manage 
the mills. All the interesting part is done al- 
ready. You and Dad had the pleasure — ” 

“ The damned hard work, you mean,” cut 
in his grandfather. 

“Well, the hard work, then,” chuckled 
Laurie, “ of building the business up.” 


WHAT CAME OF THE PLOT 195 

“ That is true, my boy,” replied Mr. Fer- 
nald. “ It was a great game, too. Why, you 
know when I came here and we staked out the 
site for the mills, there was n’t a house in sight. 
There was nothing but that river. To one lit- 
tle wooden factory and that rushing torrent 
of water I pinned my faith. Every cent I 
possessed in the world was in the venture. I 
must make good or go under. Nobody will 
ever know how I slaved in those early days. 
For years I worked day and night, never giv- 
ing myself time to realize that I was tired. 
But I was young and eager and although I got 
fagged sometimes a few hours of sleep sent me 
forth each morning with faith that I could 
slay whatever dragons I might encounter. As 
I look back on those years, hard though they 
were, they will always stand out as the hap- 
piest ones of my life. It was the fight that was 
the sport. Now I am an old man and I have 
won the thing I was after — success. Of 
course, it is a satisfaction to have done what 
you set out to do. But I tell you, laddie, that 
after your money is made, the zest of the game 
is gone. Your fortune rolls up then without 
you and all you have to do is to sit back and 
watch it grow of itself. It does n’t seem to 
be a part of you any more. You feel old, and 
unnecessary, and out of it. You are on the 
shelf.” 

“ That is why I want to begin at the begin- 


1 96 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

ning and earn my own money, Grandfather,” 
Laurie put in. “ Think what you would have 
missed if some one had deprived you of all 
your fun when you were young. You 
would n’t have liked it.” 

“ You bet I would n’t! ” cried the old gen- 
tleman. 

“ I don’t want to lose my fun either,” per- 
sisted Laurie. “ I want to win my way just as 
you and Dad have done — just as Ted Turner 
is going to do. I want to find out what is in 
me and what I can do with it.” 

Grandfather Fernald rubbed his hands. 

“ Bully for you, Laurie! Bully for you! ” 
he ejaculated. “ That’s the true Fernald 
spirit. It was that stuff that took me away 
from my father’s farm in Vermont and started 
me out in the world with only six dollars in 
my pocket. I was bound I would try my mus- 
cle and I did. I got some pretty hard knocks, 
too, while I was doing it. Still, they were all 
in the day’s work and I never have regretted 
them. But I did n’t mean to have your father 
go through all I did and so I saw that he got 
an education and started different. He knew 
what he was fighting and was armed with the 
proper weapons instead of going blind into the 
scrimmage. That is what we are trying to do 
for you and what we mean to do for Ted Tur- 
ner. We do not intend to take either of you 
out of the fray but we are going to put into 


WHAT CAME OF THE PLOT 197 

your hands the things you need to win the 
battle. Then the making good will depend 
solely on you.” 

“ I mean to try to do my part.” 

“ I know you do, laddie ; and you ’ll do it, 
too.” 

“I just wish I was stronger — as well as 
Ted is,” murmured the boy. 

“ I wish you were,” his grandfather re- 
sponded gently, touching his grandson’s shoul- 
der affectionately with his strong hand. “ If 
money could give you health you should have 
every farthing I possess. But there are things 
that money cannot do, Laurie. I used to think 
it was all-powerful and that if I had it there 
was nothing I could not make mine. But I 
realize now that many of the best gifts of life 
are beyond its reach. We grow wiser as we 
grow older,” he concluded, with a sad shake of 
his head. “ Sometimes I think we should have 
been granted two lives, one to experiment with 
and the other to live.” 

He rose, a weary shadow clouding his eyes. 

“ Well, to live and learn is all we can do; 
and thank goodness it is never too late to profit 
by our errors. I have learned many things 
from Ted Turner; I have learned some more 
from his father; and I have added to all these 
certain things that those unlucky wretches, 
Sullivan and Cronin, have demonstrated to 
me. Who knows but I may make Freeman’s 


1 98 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

Falls a better place in consequence? We shall 
see.” 

With these parting reflections the old gentle* 
man slowly left the room. 


CHAPTER XVI 

ANOTHER CALAMITY 

The winter was a long and tedious one with 
much cold weather and ice. Great drifts 
leveled the fields about Aldercliffe and Pine 
Lea, shrouding the vast expanse of fields along 
the river in a glistening cloak of ermine span- 
gled with gold. The stream itself was buried 
so deep beneath the snow that it was difficult 
not to believe it had disappeared altogether. 
Freeman’s Falls had never known a more se- 
vere season and among the mill employees 
there was much illness and depression. Prices 
were high, business slack, and the work ran 
light. Nevertheless, the Fernalds refused to 
shorten the hours. There were no night shifts 
on duty, to be sure, but the hum of the machin- 
ery that ceased at twilight resumed its buzzing 
every morning and by its music gladdened 
many a home where anxiety might otherwise 
have reigned. 

That the factories were being operated at a 
loss rather than throw the men out of employ- 
ment Ted Turner could not help knowing for 
since he had become a member of the Fernald 
household he had been included so intimately 


200 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


in the family circle that it was unavoidable he 
should be cognizant of much that went on 
there. As a result, an entirely new aspect of 
manufacture came before him. Up to this 
time he had seen but one side of the picture, 
that with which the working man was familiar. 
But now the capitalist’s side was turned toward 
him and on confronting its many intricate 
phases he gained a very different conception 
of the mill-owner’s conundrums. He learned 
now for the first time who it was that tided 
over business in its seasons of stress and ad- 
vanced the money that kept bread in the 
mouths of the workers. He sensed, too, as he 
might never have done otherwise, who shoul- 
dered the burden of care not alone during 
working hours but outside of them ; he 
glimpsed something of the struggles of compe- 
tition; the problems of securing raw material; 
the work concerning credits. 

A very novel viewpoint it was to the boy, 
and as he regarded the complicated web, he 
found himself wondering how much of all this 
tangle was known to the men, and whether 
they were always fair to their employer. He 
had frequently overheard conversations at his 
father’s when they had proclaimed how easy 
and care-free a life the rich led, and while they 
had envied and criticized and slandered the 
Fernalds and asserted that they did nothing 
but enjoy themselves, he had listened. Ah, 


ANOTHER CALAMITY 


201 


how far from the truth this estimate had been! 
He speculated, as he reviewed the facts and 
vaguely rehearsed the capitalist’s enigmas 
whether, if shown the actual conditions, the 
townsfolk would have been willing to ex- 
change places with either of these men whose 
fortunes they so greedily coveted. 

For in very truth the Fernalds seemed to 
Ted persons to be pitied far more than envied. 
Stripped of illusions, what was Mr. Lawrence 
Fernald but an old man who had devoted him- 
self to money-making until he had rolled up a 
fortune so large that its management left him 
no leisure to enjoy it? Eager to accumulate 
more and ever more wealth, he toiled and wor- 
ried quite as hard as he would have done had 
he had no money at all; he often passed sleep- 
less nights and could never be persuaded to 
take a day away from his office. He slaved 
harder than any of those he paid to work for 
him and he had none of their respite from 
care. 

Mr. Clarence Fernald, being of a younger 
generation, had perhaps learned greater wis- 
dom. At any rate, he went away twice a year 
for extended pleasure trips. Possibly the fact 
that his father had degenerated into a mere 
money-making machine was ever before him, 
serving as a warning against a similar fate. 
However that may have been, he did break 
resolutely away from business at intervals, or 


202 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


tried to. Nevertheless, he never could con- 
trive to be wholly free. Telegrams pursued 
him wherever he went; his secretary often 
went in search of him; and many a time, like a 
defeated runaway whose escape is cut short, 
he was compelled to abandon his holiday and 
return to the mills, there to straighten out some 
unlooked-for complication. Day and night 
the responsibilities of his position, the welfare 
of the hundreds of persons dependent on him, 
weighed down his shoulders. And even when 
he was at home in the bosom of his family, 
there was Laurie, his son, his idol, who could 
probably never be well! What man in all 
Freeman’s Falls could have envied him if ac- 
quainted with all the conditions of his life? 

This and many another such reflection en- 
grossed Ted, causing him to wonder whether 
there was not in the divine plan a certain ele- 
ment of equalization. 

In the meantime, his lessons with Laurie 
and Mr. Hazen went steadily and delightfully 
on. How much more could be accomplished 
with a tutor who devoted all his time simply 
to two pupils! And how much greater pleas- 
ure one derived from studying under these 
intimate circumstances! In every way the ar- 
rangement was ideal. Thus the winter passed 
with its balancing factors of work and play. 
The friendship between the two boys strength- 
ened daily and in a similar proportion Ted’s 


ANOTHER CALAMITY 203 

affection for the entire Fernald family in- 
creased. 

It was when the first thaw made its appear- 
ance late in March that trouble came. Laurie 
was stricken with measles, and because of the 
contagion, Ted’s little shack near the river was 
hastily equipped for occupancy, and the lad 
was transferred there. 

“ I can’t have two boys sick,” declared Mr. 
Clarence Fernald, “ and as you have not been 
exposed to the disease there is no sense in our 
thrusting you into its midst. Plenty of wood 
will keep your fireplace blazing and as the 
weather is comparatively mild I fancy you can 
contrive to be comfortable. We will connect 
the telephone so you won’t be lonely and so 
you can talk with Laurie every day. The doc- 
tor says he will soon be well again and after 
the house has been fumigated you can come 
back to Pine Lea.” 

Accordingly, Ted was once more ensconced 
in the little hut and how good it seemed to be 
again in that familiar haunt only he realized. 
Before the first day was over, he felt as if he 
had never been away. Pine Lea might boast 
its conservatories, its sun parlors, its tiled 
baths, its luxuries of every sort; they all faded 
into nothingness beside the freedom and peace 
of the tiny shack at the river’s margin. 

Meanwhile, with the gradual approach of 
spring, the sun mounted higher and the great 


204 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 

snow drifts settled and began to disappear. 
Already the ice in the stream was breaking up 
and the turbid yellow waters went rushing 
along, carrying with them whirling blocks of 
snow. As the torrent swept past, it flooded the 
meadows and piled up against the dam oppo- 
site the factories great frozen, jagged masses 
of ice which ground and crashed against one 
another, so that the sounds could be distinctly 
heard within the mills. At some points these 
miniature icebergs blocked the falls and held 
the waters in check until, instead of cascading 
over the dam, they spread inland, inundating 
the shores. The float before Ted’s door was 
covered and at night, when all was still and 
his windows open, he could hear the roaring 
of the stream, and the impact of the bumping 
ice as it sped along. Daily, as the snows on the 
far distant hillsides near the river’s source 
melted, the flood increased and poured down 
in an ever rising tide its seething waters. 

Yet notwithstanding the fact that each day 
saw the stream higher, no one experienced any 
actual anxiety from the conditions, although 
everybody granted they were abnormal. Of 
course, there was more ice in the river than 
there had been for many years. Even Grand- 
father Fernald, who had lived in the vicinity 
for close on to half a century, could not recall 
ever having witnessed such a spring freshet; 
nor did he deny that the weight of ice and 


ANOTHER CALAMITY 


205 


water against the dam must be tremendous. 
However, the structure was strong and there 
was no question of its ability to hold, even 
though this chaos of grinding ice-cakes 
boomed against it with defiant reverberation. 

In spite of the conditions, Ted felt no ner- 
vousness about remaining by himself in the 
shack and perhaps every premonition of evil 
might have escaped him had he not been 
awakened one morning very early by a ripple 
of lapping water that seemed near at hand. 
Sleepily he opened his eyes and looked about 
him. The floor of the hut was wet and 
through the crack beneath the door a thread 
of muddy water was steadily seeping. In an 
instant he was on his feet and as he stood look- 
ing about him in bewilderment he heard the 
roar of the river and detected in the sound a 
threatening intonation that had not been there 
on the previous day. He hurried to the win- 
dow and stared out into the grayness of the 
dawn. The scene that confronted him chilled 
his blood. The river had risen unbelievably 
during the night. Not only were the little 
bushes along the shore entirely submerged but 
many of the pines standing upon higher 
ground were also under water. 

As he threw on his clothes, he tried to decide 
whether there was anything he ought to do. 
Would it be well to call up the Fernalds, or 
telephone to the mills, or to the village, and 


20 6 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


give warning of the conditions? It was barely 
four o’clock and the first streaks of light were 
but just appearing. Nevertheless, there must 
be persons who were awake and as alert as 
he to the transformation the darkness had 
wrought. Moreover, perhaps there was no 
actual danger, and should this prove to be the 
case, how absurd he would feel to arouse peo- 
ple at daybreak for a mere nothing. It was 
while he paused there indecisively that a sight 
met his eye which spurred hesitancy to imme- 
diate action. Around the bend far up the 
stream came sweeping a tangle of wreckage — 
trees, and brush, and floating timber — and 
swirling along in its wake was a small lean-to 
which he recognized as one that had stood 
on the bank of the river at Melton, the village 
located five miles above Freeman’s Falls. If 
the water were high enough to carry away this 
building, it must indeed have risen to a menac- 
ing height and there was not a moment to be 
lost. 

He rushed to the telephone and called up 
Mr. Clarence Fernald who replied to his sum- 
mons in irritable, half-dazed fashion. 

“ Is there any way of lifting the water gates 
at the mills? ” asked Ted breathlessly. “ The 
river has risen so high that it is sweeping away 
trees and even some of the smaller houses from 
the Melton shore. If the debris piles up 
against the dam, the pressure may be more 


ANOTHER CALAMITY 


207 


than the thing can stand. Besides, the water 
will spread and flood both Aldercliffe and 
Pine Lea. I thought I ’d better tell you.” 

Mr. Fernald was not dazed now; he was 
broad awake. 

“Where are you?” inquired he sharply. 

“ At the shack, sir. The water is ankle 
deep.” 

“ Don’t stay there another moment. It is 
not safe. At any instant the whole hut may 
be carried away. Gather your traps together 
and call Wharton or Stevens — or both of 
them — to come and help you take them up to 
Alderclifife. I ’ll attend to notifying the mills. 
You ’ve done us a good turn, my boy.” 

During the next hour Ted himself was too 
busy to appreciate the hectic rush of events 
that he had set moving, or realize the feverish 
energy with which the Fernalds and their em- 
ployees worked to avert a tragedy which, but 
for his warning, might have been a very ter- 
rible one. The mills were reached by wire and 
the sluices at the sides of the central dam im- 
mediately lifted to make way for the torrent 
of snow, ice, wreckage, and water. In what 
a fierce and maddened chaos it surged over the 
falls and dashed into the chasm beneath! All 
day the mighty current boiled and seethed, 
overflowing the outlying fields with its yellow 
flood. Nevertheless, the great brick factories 
that bordered the stream stood firm and so did 


208 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


the residences at Aldercliffe and Pine Lea, 
both of which were fortunately situated on 
high ground. 

Ted had not made his escape from his little 
camp a moment too soon, for while he stood 
looking out on the freshet from one of the 
attic windows at Pine Lea, he shivered to be- 
hold his little hut bob past him amid the rush- 
ing waters and drift into an eddy on the oppo- 
site shore along with a mass of uprooted pines. 

A sob burst from him. 

“ It ’s gone, Mr. Hazen — our little house ! ” 
he murmured brokenly to the young tutor who 
was standing beside him. “ We never shall 
see it again.” 

“ You must n’t take it so to heart, Ted,” the 
teacher answered, laying his hand sympatheti- 
cally on the lad’s shoulder. “ Suppose you had 
been in it and borne away to almost certain 
death. That would have been a calamity in- 
deed. What is an empty boathouse when we 
consider how many people are to suffer actual 
financial loss and perhaps forfeit everything 
they have, as a result of this tragedy. The vil- 
lagers who live along the river will lose prac- 
tically everything they own — boats, poultry, 
bams; and many of them both houses and fur- 
niture. We all loved the shack; but it is not 
as if its destruction left you with no other roof 
above your head. You can stay at Aldercliffe, 
Pine Lea, or join your family at Freeman’s 


ANOTHER CALAMITY 


209 


Falls. Three shelters are open to you. But 
these poor souls in the town — ” 

“ I had not thought about the villagers,” 
blushed Ted. 

“ The Fernalds have been in the settlement 
since dawn and along with every man they 
could summon have been working to save life 
and property. If I had not had to stay here 
with Laurie, I should have gone to help, too.” 

Ted hung his head. 

“ I ’m ashamed to have been so selfish,” said 
he. “ Instead of thinking only of myself, I 
ought to have been lending a hand to aid some- 
body else. It was rotten of me. Why can’t 
I go down to the village now? There must be 
things I can do. Certainly I ’m no use here.” 

“ No, there is nothing to be done here,” the 
tutor agreed. “ If you could stay with Laurie 
and calm him down there would be some sense 
in your remaining; but as it is, I don’t see why 
you should n’t go along to the town and fill 
in wherever you can. I fancy there will be 
plenty to do. The Fernalds, Wharton, Stev- 
ens, and the rest of the men are moving the 
families who lived along the water front out 
of their houses and into others. All our trucks 
and cars are busy at the job.” 

“ I know I could help,” cried Ted eagerly, 
his foot on the top step of the staircase. 

“ I am sure you can,” Mr. Hazen replied. 
“ Already by your timely warning you have 


2io TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


helped more than you will ever know. I trem- 
ble to think what might have happened if you 
had not awakened Mr. Clarence just when you 
did. Had the dam at the mills gone down, 
the whole town would have been devastated. 
Mr. Fernald told me so himself.” 

“ I ’m mighty glad if I — ” 

“ So you see you have been far from selfish,” 
continued the tutor, in a cheery tone. “ As for 
the shack, it can be rebuilt, so I should not 
mourn about that.” 

“ I guess Mr. Fernald is glad now that he 
has his plans ready for his model village.” 

“ Yes, he is. He said right away that it was 
providential. The snow will disappear after 
this thaw and as soon as the earth dries up 
enough to admit of building, the workmen will 
begin to break ground for the new settlement. 
The prospect of other and better houses than 
the old ones will encourage many of the mill 
people who have had their dwellings ruined 
to-day and in consequence been forced to move 
into temporary quarters where they are 
crowded and uncomfortable. We can all en- 
dure inconvenience when we know it is not to 
last indefinitely. Mr. Fernald told me over 
the telephone that the promise of new houses 
by summer or fall at the latest was buoying up 
the courage of all those who had suffered from 
this terrible disaster. He is going to grant 
special privileges to every family that has met 


ANOTHER CALAMITY 


21 1 


with loss. They are to be given the first houses 
that are finished. ,, 

“ I do hope another freshet like this one 
won’t sweep away the new village,” reflected 
Ted. 

“ Oh, we shall probably never again be 
treated to an excitement similar to this one,” 
smiled Mr. Hazen reassuringly. “ Did n’t you 
hear them say that it was the bursting of the 
Melton reservoir which was largely respon- 
sible for this catastrophe? Mr. Fernald de- 
clared all along that this was no ordinary 
freshet. He has seen the river every spring 
for nearly forty years and watched it through 
all its annual thaws ; and although it has often 
been high, it has never been a danger to the 
community. He told me over the telephone 
about the reservoir bursting. He had just got 
the news. It seems the reservoir above Melton 
was an old one which the authorities have re- 
alized for some time must be rebuilt. They let 
it go one year too long. With the weight of 
water, snow, and ice, it could not bear the 
pressure put upon it and collapsed. I ’m 
afraid it has been a severe lesson to the officials 
of the place for the chance they took has caused 
terrible damage.” 

“Were people killed?” asked Ted in an 
awed whisper. 

“We have heard so — two or three who 
were trapped asleep in their houses. As for 


2i2 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


the town, practically all the buildings that 
fronted the river were destroyed. Of course, 
as yet we have not been able to get very satis- 
factory details, for most of the wires were 
down and communication was pretty well cut 
off. I suppose that is why they did not notify 
us of our peril. People were probably too 
busy with their own affairs, too intent on sav- 
ing their own lives and possessions to think of 
anything else. Then, too, the thing came sud- 
denly. If there had n’t been somebody awake 
here, I don’t know where we should have been. 
I don’t see how you happened to be astir so 
early.” 

“ Nor I,” returned Ted modestly. “ I think 
it must have been the sound of the water com- 
ing in that woke me. I just happened to hear 
it.” 

“ Well, it was an almighty fortunate happen 
— that is all I can say,” asserted Mr. Hazen, 
as the boy sped down the stairs. 


CHAPTER XVII 


SURPRISES 

DURING the next few days tidings of the 
Melton disaster proved the truth of Mr. 
Hazen’s charitable suppositions, for it was 
definitely learned that the calamity which be- 
fell the village came entirely without warn- 
ing, and as the main part of the town was 
wiped out almost completely and the river 
front destroyed, all communication between 
the unfortunate settlement and the outside 
world had been cut off so that to send warnings 
to the communities below had been impossible. 
Considering the enormity of the catastrophe, it 
was miraculous that there had not been greater 
loss of life and wider spread devastation. 

A week of demoralization all along the river 
followed the tragedy; but after the bulk of 
wreckage was cleared away and the stream had 
dropped to normal, the Fernalds actually be- 
gan to congratulate themselves on the direful 
event. 

“ Well, the thing has not been all to the bad, 
by any means,” commented Grandfather Fer- 
nald. “ We have at least got rid of those un- 
sightly tenements bordering the water which 
were such a blot on Freeman’s Falls; and once 


214 TED and the telephone 


gone, I do not mean to allow them ever to be 
put back again. I have bought up the land 
and shall use it as the site of the new granite 
bridge I intend to build across the stream. 
And in case I have more land than is needed 
for this purpose, the extra area can be used for 
a park which will be an ornament to the spot 
rather than an eyesore. Therefore, take it al- 
together, I consider that freshet a capital 
thing.” 

He glanced at Ted who chanced to be stand- 
ing near by. 

“ I suppose you, my lad, do not entirely 
agree with me,” added he, a twinkle gleaming 
beneath his shaggy brows. “ You are thinking 
of that playhouse of yours and Laurie’s that 
was carried off by the deluge.” 

“ I am afraid I was, sir.” 

“ Pooh! Nonsense! ” blustered the old gen- 
tleman. “ What ’s a thing like that? Besides, 
Laurie’s father proposes to rebuild it for you. 
Hasn’t he told you?” questioned the man, 
noticing the surprise in the boy’s face. “ Oh, 
yes, indeed! He is going to put up another 
house for you ; and judging from his plans, you 
will find yourself far better off than you were 
in the first place for this time he is to give you 
a real cottage, not simply a made-over boat- 
house. Yes, there is to be running water; a 
bedroom, study, and kitchenette; to say noth- 
ing of a bath and steam heat. He plans to con- 


SURPRISES 


215 


nect it by piping with the central heating plant. 
So you see you will have a regular housekeep- 
ing bungalow instead of a camp.” 

Ted gasped. 

“ But — but — I can’t let Mr. Fernald do 
all this for me,” he protested. “ It ’s — it ’s — 
too much.” 

“ I should n’t worry about him, if I were 
you,” smiled the elder man. “ It won’t scrimp 
him, I imagine. Furthermore, it will be an 
excellent investment, for should the time ever 
come when you did not need the house it could 
be rented to one of our tenants. He is to put 
a foundation under it this time and build it 
more solidly; and possibly he may decide to set 
it a trifle farther back from the water. In 
any case, he will see that it is right; you can 
trust him for that. It will not be carried away 
a second time.” 

“ I certainly hope not,” Ted agreed. “ What 
a pity it was they did not have some way of 
notifying us from Melton! If they had only 
had a wireless apparatus — ” he broke off 
thoughtfully. 

“ I doubt if all the wireless in the world 
could have saved your little hut,” answered 
Mr. Fernald kindly. “ It was nothing but a 
pasteboard house and wireless or no wireless it 
would have gone anyway. I often speculate 
as to how ships ever dared to go to sea before 
they had the protection of wireless communi- 


21 6 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


cation. Ignorance was bliss, I suppose. They 
knew nothing about it and therefore did not 
miss it. When we can boast no better way 
we are satisfied with the old. But think of the 
shipwrecks and accidents that might have been 
averted! You will be studying about all this 
some day when you go to Technology or col- 
lege.” 

Ted’s face lighted at the words. 

“ You have all been so kind to me, Mr. Fer- 
nald,” he murmured. “ When I think of your 
sending me to college it almost bowls me 
over.” 

“ You must never look upon it as an obliga- 
tion, my boy,” the old gentleman declared. 
“ If there is any obligation at all (and there 
is a very real one) it is ours. The only obliga- 
tion you have will be to do well at your studies 
and make us proud of you, and that you are 
doing all the time. Mr. Hazen tells me you 
are showing splendid progress. I hope by an- 
other week Laurie will be out of the woods, 
Pine Lea will be fumigated, and you can re- 
sume your former way of living there without 
further interruptions from floods and illness. 
Still, I shall be sorry to have your little visit 
at Alderclifle come to an end. You seem to 
have grown into the ways of the whole family 
and to fit in wherever you find yourself.” 

Mr. Fernald smiled affectionately at the 
lad. 


SURPRISES 


217 


“ There is something that has been on my 
tongue’s end to whisper to you for some time,” 
he went on, after a brief interval of hesitancy. 
“ I know you can keep a secret and so I mean 
to tell you one. In the spring we are going to 
take Laurie over to New York to see a very 
celebrated surgeon who is coming from 
Vienna to this country. We hear he has had 
great success with cases such as Laurie’s and 
we hope he may be able to do something for 
the boy. Of course, no one knows this as yet, 
not even Laurie himself.” 

“ Oh, Mr. Fernald! Do you mean there 
would be a chance that Laurie could walk 
sometime? ” Ted cried. 

The old man looked into the young and shin- 
ing face and nervously brushed the back of his 
hand across his eyes. 

“ Perhaps; perhaps! ” responded he gruffly. 
“Who can tell? This doctor has certainly 
performed some marvelous cures. Who 
knows but the lad may some day not only walk 
about, but leap and run as you do! ” 

“ Oh, sir — ! ” 

“ But we must not be too sure or allow our- 
selves to be swept away by hope,” cautioned 
Grandfather Fernald. “ No one knows what 
can be done yet and we might be disappointed 
* — sadly disappointed. Still, there is no de- 
nying that there is a fighting chance. But 
keep this to yourself, Ted. I must trust you 


21 8 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


to do that. If Laurie were to know anything 
about it, it would be very unfortunate, for the 
ordeal will mean both pain and suffering for 
him and he must not be worried about it in ad- 
vance. He will need all his nerve and courage 
when the time for action comes. Moreover, 
we feel it would be cruel for him to glimpse 
such a vision and then find it only a mirage. 
So we have told him nothing. But I have told 
you because you are fond of him and I wanted 
you to share the secret.” 

“ It shall remain a secret, Mr. Fernald.” 

“ I feel sure of that,” the man replied. 
“You are a good boy, Ted. It was a lucky 
day that brought you to Pine Lea.” 

“ A lucky one for me, sir! ” 

“ For all of us, son! For all of us! ” reiter- 
ated the old gentleman. “ The year of your 
coming here will be one we never shall forget. 
It has been very eventful.” 

Certainly the final comment was no idle one. 
Not only had the year been a red-letter one but 
It was destined to prove even more conspicu- 
ously memorable. With the spring the plans 
for the new village went rapidly forward and 
soon pretty little concrete houses with roofs of 
scarlet and trimmings of green dotted the 
slopes on the opposite side of the river. The 
laying out and building of this community be- 
came Grandfather Fernald’s recreation and 
delight. Morning, noon, and evening he 


SURPRISES 


219 


could be seen either perusing curling sheets of 
blue prints, consorting with his architects, or 
rolling off in his car to inspect the progress of 
the venture. Sometimes he took Ted with 
him, sometimes his son, and when Laurie was 
strong enough, the entire family frequently 
made the pilgrimage to the new settlement. 

It was very attractive, there was no denying 
that; and it seemed as if nothing that could 
give pleasure to its future residents had been 
omitted. The tiny library had been Laurie’s 
pet scheme, and not only had his grandfather 
eagerly carried out the boy’s own plans but he 
had proudly ordered the lad’s name to be 
chiselled across the front of the building. 
Ted’s plea had been for a playground and this 
request had also been granted, since it ap- 
peared to be a wise one. It was a wonderful 
playground, bordering on the river and having 
swings and sand boxes for the children; seats 
for tired mothers; and a large ball-field with 
bleachers for the men and boys. The inhabi- 
tants of Freeman’s Falls had never dreamed 
of such an ideal realm in which to live, and as 
tidings of the paradise went forth, strangers 
began to flock into town in the hope of secur- 
ing work in the mills and homes in the new 
settlement. 

The Fernalds, however, soon made it plain 
that the preference was to be given to their 
old employees who had served them well and 


220 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


faithfully for so many years. Therefore, as 
fast as the houses were completed, they were 
assigned to those who had been longest in the 
company’s employ and soon the streets of the 
new village were no longer silent but teemed 
with life and the laughter of a happy people. 
And among those for whom a charming little 
abode was reserved were the Turners, Ted’s 
family. 

Then came the tearing down of the tem- 
porary bridge of wood and the opening of the 
beautiful stone structure that arched the 
stream. Ah, what a holiday that was! The 
mills were closed, there was a band concert in 
the little park, dedication exercises, and fire- 
works in the evening. And great was Ted’s 
surprise when he spied cut in the stone the 
words “Turner’s Bridge! ” Near the entrance 
was a modest bronze tablet stating that the 
memorial had been constructed in honor of 
Theodore Turner who, by his forethought in 
giving warning of the freshet of 1912 had 
saved the village of Freeman’s Falls from in- 
estimable calamity. 

How the boy blushed when Mr. Lawrence 
Fernald mentioned him by name in the dedi- 
cation speech! And yet he was pleased, too. 
And how the people cheered; and how proud 
his father and sisters were! Perhaps, how- 
ever, the most delighted person of all was 
Laurie who had been in the secret all along 


SURPRISES 221 

and who now smiled radiantly to see his friend 
so honored. 

“ The townspeople may not go to my li- 
brary,” he laughed, “ but every one of them 
will use your bridge. They will have to ; they 
can’t help it! ” 

The thought seemed to amuse him vastly 
and he always referred to the exquisite granite 
structure with its triple arch and richly carved 
piers of stone as Ted's Bridge . 

Thus did the year with its varied experi- 
ences slip by and when June came the Fernalds 
carried Laurie to New York to consult the 
much heralded Viennese surgeon. Ah, those 
were feverish, anxious days, not only for the 
Fernald family but for Ted and Mr. Hazen 
as well. The boy and the tutor had remained 
at Pine Lea there to continue their studies and 
await the tidings Laurie’s father had promised 
to send them; and when the ominous yellow 
telegrams with their momentous messages be- 
gan to arrive, they hardly knew whether to 
greet them with sorrow or rejoicing. 

They need not, however, have dreaded the 
news for after careful examination the emi- 
nent specialist had decided to take a single 
desperate chance and operate with the hope 
of success. Laurie, they were told, was a mon- 
ument of courage and had the spirit of a Spar- 
tan. Unquestionably he merited the good 
luck that followed for fortune did reward his 


222 TED AND THE TELEPHONE 


heroism, — smiling fortune. Of course, the 
miracle of health could not come all in a mo- 
ment; months of convalescence must follow 
which would be unavoidably tedious with suf- 
fering. But beyond this arid stretch of pain 
lay the goal of recovery. 

No lips could tell what this knowledge 
meant to those who loved the boy. In time he 
was to be as strong as any one! It was un- 
believable. Nevertheless, the roseate promise 
was no dream. Laurie was brought home to 
Pine Lea and immediately the mending pro- 
cess began. Already one could read in the 
patient face the transformation hope had 
wrought. There was some day to be college, 
not alone for Ted but for Laurie himself, — 
college, and sports, and a career. 

In the fullness of time these long-antici- 
pated joys began to arrive. Health made its 
appearance and at its heels trouped success and 
happiness; and to balance them came grati- 
tude, humility, and service. In the meantime, 
with every lengthening year, the friendship 
between Laurie and Ted toughened in fiber 
and became a closer bond. And it was not 
engineering or electricity that ultimately 
claimed the constructive interest of the two 
comrades but instead the Fernald mills, which 
upon Grandfather Fernald’s retirement called 
for younger men at their helm. So after going 
forth into the great world and whetting the 


SURPRISES 


223 


weapons of their intellect they found the 
dragon they had planned to slay waiting for 
them at home in Freeman’s Falls. Yet not- 
withstanding its familiar environment, it was 
a very real dragon and resolutely the two 
young men attacked it, putting into their man- 
agement of the extensive industry all the spirit 
of brotherhood that burned in their hearts and 
all the desire for service which they cherished. 
With the aim of bringing about a kindlier 
cooperation and fuller sympathy between 
capital and labor they toiled, and the world to 
which they gave their efforts was the better for 
it. 

Nevertheless, they did not entirely abandon 
their scientific interests for on the border of 
the river stood a tiny shack equipped with a 
powerful wireless apparatus. Here on a leis- 
ure afternoon Ted Turner and his comrade 
could often be found capturing from the at- 
mosphere those magic sounds that spelled the 
intercourse of peoples, and the thought of 
nations; and often they spoke of Alexander 
Graham Bell and those patient pioneers who, 
together with him, had made it possible for the 
speech of man to traverse continents and circle 
a universe. 


FINIS 




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